In two unrelated traffic crashes Tuesday afternoon in Armstrong County that occurred within minutes of each other, a 75-year-old Cowansville man was killed in Bradys Bend Township, and the driver of a tractor-trailer was not hurt when the truck overturned in Valley Township.
Lewis Orville Douglass, 75, of 160 Douglass Lane, Cowansville, died in a head-on collision that happened along Route 68, three-tenths of a mile west of Roseville Road, six miles west of East Brady, in Bradys Bend Township, at 12:50 p.m.
State police said Douglass was traveling east on Route 68 when a car operated by Brittni Elyse Geibel, 18, of Chicora, crossed the center line and struck Douglass' pickup head-on.
Douglass was not wearing a seatbelt, police said.
Armstrong County Coroner Robert Bower said Douglass was taken by ambulance to ACMH Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:40 p.m.
Bower said the cause of death was accidental due to blunt-force trauma to the chest and abdomen.
Geibel was flown by emergency helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital. Her condition was unknown late yesterday. Police listed her injuries as moderate.
Sugarcreek and East Brady ambulance services, and East Brady and Chicora fire departments assisted at the scene.
The accident is under investigation by the coroner's office and state police.
In another part of the county, Todd Mills, 36, of Tionesta, escaped injury when his tractor-trailer went off Route 85 in Valley Township and sheared a utility pole sometime after noon.
Mills, who was hauling a load of wood chips for S&S Processing, of Ellwood City, told police an eastbound pickup forced him off the road, causing the trailer to overturn into a yard just before the intersection with Stonehouse Road.
Police said the trailer's wheels went off the road, sunk into the rain-soaked berm and traveled about 60 yards before the trailer overturned, spilling its load and sending mud and other debris onto the roadway.
The cab of the truck remained upright, but the downed utility pole prevented Mills from getting out for several minutes. Mills was able to leave the cab after emergency crews arrived and determined it was safe to do so.
Fire crews from Rayburn, Kittanning Hose Co. 6 and West Kittanning, along with Kittanning Hose Co. 6 Ambulance, were dispatched to the scene at 12:18 p.m. PennDOT crews assisted to direct traffic and clean up debris along the roadway.
Nearby residents said the accident knocked out power, phone and cable service to the immediate area. Utility crews were on scene to replace the pole within an hour of the crash.
