Tests show man who drowned on flooded road was drunk
The results of a toxicology test show a Fairchance man who died April 14 after his truck plunged into a flooded section of Frogtown Road in Luzerne Township had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the state’s legal intoxication limit. Fayette County deputy coroner Elsie Dvorchak said test results on 32-year-old Charles J. Crum showed an alcohol level of .245 percent. The state’s legal limit is .8 percent.
A coroner’s inquest into Crum’s death has been scheduled for May 27, Dvorchak said.
Crum drowned after the pickup truck in which he was traveling with two other people plunged into the pooled waters along Frogtown Road.
Crum was thrown into the water and couldn’t get out. Two passengers, not yet identified, were able to get to safety and to a nearby house to call emergency personnel.
Since the drowning, Luzerne Township supervisors have placed 3-ton concrete barriers across the roadway to prevent further traffic.
“The barriers are still in place, and there have been no problems since,’ said township police Lt. Roy Mehalik.
He disputed a published statement that the area was used for partying.
“I’ve never seen anyone partying down there,’ added Mehalik. “We have not had a problem there with people partying. Very few people even know of the area. There were only a few people fishing down there on occasion.’
The road had been closed to traffic for about a year, due to excessive flooding.
Signs at both ends of Frogtown Road warned drivers that the road was closed, but no physical barriers were blocking the flooded section of the road at the time of the April 14 accident. Approximately 80 feet of the 1.5 mile road is under water that overflows the banks of a 16-acre pond that remains after various mining operations at the former Isabella mine.
The flooded water on the roadway can be 10 to 15 feet deep, and the water in the pond, which resembles a lake or river, is approximately 100 to 150 feet deep in some areas, the township supervisors have said.
The supervisors placed a number of barriers over time to ward off traffic
When the mine was operating, the companies would pump the water out of the ponds into the Monongahela River, and when the last company that owned it went bankrupt, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) took responsibility for the pumping, according to the supervisors.
The supervisors said that over time, vandals tore the piping out and cut down utility poles, which halted the electrical supply, ending the pumping of the ponds there.
The DEP has been considering two possible solutions to the flooding, including raising Frogtown Road or constructing a spillway from the pond to the river.
The mine recently was purchased, but plans for development won’t take place for several years.
According to the DEP, 16 deaths have been documented at abandoned mine sites across the state in the last five years.
Fayette County Coroner Dr. Philip Reilly, reported no prior deaths from drowning at abandoned mine sites within Fayette County in the past 20 years.