MIDDLESEX TOWNSHIP — A firefighter clearing debris from the vehicle collision Monday lifted a shattered car part off Route 8 and noted, “I think this is from last week's crash.”

Two violent collisions, just days apart, occurred at the same location.

On Friday, 71-year-old motorcyclist John Caldwell of Beaver Falls died when his Harley Davidson collided with a northbound car turning into the Cogo's parking lot.

On Monday, 72-year-old Joseph Smithco of Pittsburgh suffered serious head and arm injuries when he pulled his 2000 Chevy S-10 pickup truck out of the same convenience store's parking lot and collided with a 2002 Mercedes driven south by Gina Machi, 18, of Gibsonia.

The force of the collision pushed Machi's SUV across the northbound lane, over a guardrail and creek before overturning near Dwellington Circle. Machi, who was initially trapped under the vehicle, was taken to Allegheny General Hospital, where she is in fair condition.

Smithco, who was thrown 80 feet from his truck, landed to the side of northbound lane. He was conscious when taken by helicopter to Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

The accident occurred a little before 11 a.m.

Township police officer Conrad Pfeifer, who investigated both collisions, said charges are possible in both.

In the aftermath of Monday's crash, neighbors gathered in circles along the then-closed 5-lane highway and regular customers of the convenience store paused inside to reflect on the crossroads.

“It's both the people and the road,” said John Titus, 43, who grew up on Dwellington Road and now lives off Sandy Hill Road. “It's always been a bad area.”

In addition to these serious collisions, residents said they see fender bender after fender bender accidents and near misses a great deal of the time.

While they acknowledge motorists hit the long straight stretch of Route 8 and pick up speed well beyond the posted 45 mph limit, they also found fault with the highway's design.

Within a short distance, Cogo's has two entrances near Denny Road. On the other side of Route 8, the circa-1970's Dwellington Green housing development has two roads: Dwellington Road and Dwellington Circle just feet from the entrance to a bus garage.

That's too much turning and too much landscaping with only a shared center turning lane for motorists to work with, they said. It's difficult to pull out into the speeding traffic and it's difficult to pull off the road, especially onto Dwellington Road that is at such a slope that even if you slow considerably, your vehicle might still scrape the bottom on the bump.

“It's almost like a game of chicken,” said Kathy Ridgeway, 46, who has lived in the housing plan for 16 years.

Ridgeway and Titus were among several people to say of the intersection: “It needs a light.”

Middlesex has contemplated the same thing, said township manager Scot Fodi, but the process isn't as simple as installing a signal and flipping a switch.

Realignment of the intersection and installation of a signal at that site were identified as long term projects in the Capital Improvements Plan approved in 2006 by the township supervisors.

The intersection made the list after an engineer determined that on average about 1,800 cars travel Denny Road daily, about 17,800 pass that portion of Route 8 when including both directions, and about 1,100 travel Dwellington Road.

Fodi said he doesn't know if the traffic count changed since the study was done. But, he said, it's a pretty safe guess the $113,396 estimated price tag to change the intersection has gone up in the past eight years. On average now, it costs the township about $120,000 to install a traffic signal.

“I wish budget wasn't part of the equation,” said Fodi who explained projects in the capital improvement plan get funded by impact fees paid by developers. And just after the plan was formed, the residential housing market bottomed out in the township generating less income than in the past.

While the intersection is noted as “challenging,” Fodi said there are other priority projects still waiting on the list including two other intersections within a mile of Denny Road also on Route 8: The intersection at Leslie Road and another at Central Drive.

“Each one of these projects has merit,” Fodi said. “Of course we wish we had impact fee money to do all of these projects. But we don't.”