Three injured in Route 40 accident
HENRY CLAY TWP. – Three people were taken to local hospitals following a two-vehicle accident Tuesday afternoon along a section of Route 40 near the scene of a fatal accident a week ago. Dora Jenkins, 22 along with passenger Tracy Jo Frye, 32, were transported to Uniontown Hospital with injuries and Francis Kay, 29, was flown to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment. No updates on the patients’ conditions were available at press time Tuesday, but the state police report from the crash listed Jenkin’s injuries as moderate with Frye and Kay suffering minor injuries.
According to state police, Jenkins was operating a 1997 green GMC Jimmy and was exiting the parking lot of the First National Bank in Markleysburg east of The Country Store and was struck by a 1997 white Plymouth Neon driven by Kay. Jenkins was not wearing her seatbelt at the time of the crash and was ejected from the vehicle, police said.
More than 90 minutes after the crash, the Markleysburg Volunteer Fire Department directed one lane of traffic around the scene, which included shattered glass strewn along the road and the left front tire of the Jimmy lying yards away from the vehicle. Both vehicles sustained severe damage and had to be towed. Traffic was halted on the road for a time while emergency crews responded.
According to the Fayette County 911 Center, the accident was reported at 3:04 p.m.
Ed Sines, Markleysburg fire police captain, said the driver’s side door and front section of the Jimmy were caved in, marking the spot where the front of the Neon struck the sport utility vehicle.
Following the accident, the Neon sat in the middle of the highway, facing westbound. Sines said the Neon had been traveling eastbound when the accident occurred. The Jimmy, which had a Maryland license plate, was facing east off the side of the road, several yard east of the Neon.
As a way to clean up fluids from the vehicles, firefighters spread kitty litter at the site of the accident, directly across from the exit to the bank.
Heading about a mile west and down the hill from the site of the accident, construction crews worked to install a water line along the southern berm of the road. Traffic was limited to one lane traveling through the construction zone.
The accident site is less than a mile from where a Farmington woman died after her minivan collided with a school bus on Nov. 26 and also within a mile of the water line construction.
Tracy Robertson, 38, died after being ejected from her vehicle and suffering multiple blunt force injuries in the accident, which happened between Dinner Bell and Pike School roads shortly after 3 p.m. A girl on the school bus was injured in the crash. She was the daughter of the bus driver.
Uniontown Area School District Superintendent Charles Machesky said the accident last week delayed mountain area students returning home from school, with buses not leaving Wharton Elementary School until about 6:15 p.m. He said that while Tuesday’s accident was not as prolonged as the crash last week, the parents of the 660 children who attend school at the three mountain schools need some recourse in cases like the accidents.
“It is a very difficult situation,” Machesky said. “When those types of accidents occur we need to keep phone lines to the schools open so parents can call. There is only one highway in the mountains and that is Route 40. While we have no control over what goes on on the highway, we will be sending home communications about what can be done in this type of event.”
He added that the last buses left Wharton at 3:50 p.m. Tuesday.
In addition to Markleysburg VFD and state police, crews from Uniontown Ambulance, Fayette EMS and Marclay Ambulance responded to the scene.