2 wrecks tie up major arteries on Saturday
Emergency crews responded to two major accidents Saturday that were unrelated to the Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
Cranberry Township, Adams Township and Zelienople volunteer fire companies, plus Cranberry EMS and the UPMC Passavant Cranberry Advanced Life Support Squad, were called out at 7:50 a.m. to the southbound lane of Interstate 79 at the 79.2 mile marker for a rollover crash with entrapment, according to scanner reports.
A U-Haul truck and a sedan were found on their sides, blocking the entire southbound lane of the interstate.
Minor injuries were reported, and I-79 southbound was closed between Evans City and Route 228 in Cranberry Township for two hours.
Crews were alerted at 1:50 p.m. to a rollover crash near the intersection of Route 8 and Volkswood Drive in Center Township.
Nathan Wulff, assistant chief at the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department, said a southbound vehicle at that location left the road and traveled 50 to 75 feet down a ravine.
He said the female driver, who was the lone occupant of the vehicle, was out of the car when firefighters arrived, but had not been ejected in the crash.
The woman, who Wulff said had serious injuries, had to be pulled up the steep embankment.
“We had to set up a haul system,” he said.
Wulff said Route 8 was closed in both directions for 30 to 45 minutes as firefighters pulled the woman out of the ravine.
Butler Ambulance transported the woman to Crossfire United Methodist Church at the intersection of Route 8 and Mercer Road, where a Stat MedEvac helicopter was waiting.
The woman was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital for treatment.
Wulff said Butler Bureau of Fire, VA Butler Fire and Emergency Services, Butler Township Fire District and state police also responded to the scene.
