Coaches aid in fiery crash rescue
Two track coaches rushed to the aid of others following a traumatic crash earlier this month in Forward Township.
As EMTs and firefighters arrived at the scene of the two-vehicle crash on Evans City Road shortly after 9:45 p.m. on May 13, they found one person trapped in a red SUV on the road and a white SUV overturned in a ravine below the road.
Evans City Assistant Fire Chief Justin Schoeffel said he saw a small group of people huddled about 10 feet from the flaming white SUV. Schoeffel said multiple people from the SUV were injured, and he saw one bystander holding a young girl.
Schoeffel said he didn’t hear until later that a couple of track coaches, coincidentally passing the scene, had helped in extracting the young, paralyzed girl from the back seat.
“If they would have still fully been in the car (by the time we arrived), I feel like they would have suffered more injuries,” Schoeffel said.
One of those coaches, Steve Tinker, head coach of the Avonworth Middle School track team, said it was a joint effort by himself and the Seneca Valley middle school track coach, Daniel Dickey, to remove the15-year-old girl from the back of the white SUV.
