3 juveniles accused of throwing rocks from I-70 overpass, damaging 6 vehicles

Heather Rodehaver thought a bullet had hit her car.

But when she pulled off a rain-slick Interstate 70 on Saturday night, she and other motorists quickly realized that rocks had been lobbed from an overpass in North Belle Vernon as they drove underneath.

“That could've cost lives,” the Greensburg woman said Tuesday.

Three juvenile males are accused by state police of throwing rocks and stones from the overpass off Ferncliff Drive at passing westbound traffic.

Two of the suspects are from Belle Vernon, and the third is from Fayette City, according to a news release. Police did not release their ages.

At least six vehicles were damaged by the rocks.

A few motorists had pulled over about 10 p.m., at the same time Rodehaver and her husband, Jarrod, did after traveling under the overpass. The rock — or “boulder” as Rodehaver described it — bounced off the roof of their Acura TLX, which is in a body shop awaiting repairs.

“I jumped out and checked our vehicle, and our sunroof was all shattered,” she said.

The Rodehavers and seven other drivers and passengers escaped injury, but their vehicles sustained damage, police said. Some had cracked or shattered windshields, dents and chips.

The other victims are from Washington and Allegheny counties, according to police.

The incidents were reported between 8:30 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 a.m. Sunday at the overpass between the Tyrol Boulevard exit and the Monongahela River.

The suspects will be charged through Westmoreland County juvenile probation, state police said.

“They don't think about their actions and how dangerous that is,” Rodehaver said. “That really could've injured a lot of people.”

Incidents of people hurling objects at vehicles have occurred on the busy highway since at least 1995, when a reward was offered for the capture of the “I-70 Maniac” and police patrols were beefed up between the New Stanton and Route 201 exits because a motorist was seriously injured.

Elsewhere in the state, four men were sentenced to prison this year for throwing a rock from an overpass that struck an Ohio woman, causing a severe brain injury. Police said the men threw the rock from an overpass along Route 80 in central Pennsylvania in July 2014.

Renatta Signorini is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.