Driver rescued Man crashes in Clinton Twp.
CLINTON TWP — Saxonburg volunteer firefighters Wednesday evening rescued a 54-year-old man who lost control of his car and crashed about 40 feet down an embankment along Lardintown Road.
Rescuers had to cut off the driver's door and roof to reach the man, whose name was not immediately available. Fire crews rigged a block and tackle and used a Stokes basket to lift him up the steep embankment.
Saxonburg Ambulance took the man, who is believed to be from Winfield Township, to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. He suffered unknown injuries but was talking to emergency crews during his ordeal, authorities said.
The man managed to use his cell phone to call 911 for help about 5:20 p.m. after his car plowed through a snow bank and plunged down the hill. Hurt and possibly disoriented, he wasn't sure of his location.
“He told (a dispatcher) he was on Sunmine Road,” said Chief Chris Ballina of the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company. But he wasn't.
Dispatchers had to ping his phone to find the closest cell tower and narrow the search area, said Steve Bicehouse, director of county emergency services. Still, rescuers had trouble finding the wreck.
Ballina, driving his department's command vehicle, drove along Lardintown Road looking for any disturbance in the snow piled along the berm that would indicate where the small car had gone off the road.“I was looking for any irregularities,” he said.With daylight dwindling, Ballina eventually found the evidence he was looking for, way down the embankment.“I saw a blue car on its wheels,” he said, “but it definitely had rolled.”It took crews some time to reach the injured man, mobilize him and hoist him up the embankment. It took a wrecker another half-hour to pull the older model car up the hill.The man's adult daughter showed up in time to watch firefighters get her father out of his predicament.State police are investigating the crash, but an accident report was not available this morning.Ballina was thankful things ended well.“If it had been at night and he didn't have a cell phone, he would have been there all night,” Ballina said of the man.
