Margaret Kubany and Tom Bender were driving Thursday afternoon along Corrigan Drive in South Park when they were horrified to see a car suddenly accelerate, swerve across the road and slam into a tree, leaving debris and clothing flying in its wake. Bender immediately made a U-turn and sped off to find a policeman, unaware that five people - including three pedestrians - perished almost instantly in the accident near the tennis courts along the park's main thoroughfare. The two motorists who died were Edward Gill, 73, and his wife of 50 years, Angeline, 74, of South Park Township, who were on their way to a cleaning shop in one of the nearby shopping centers. The pedestrians killed were: Denise Golling, 48, of Finleyville, Washington County; Margaret Williams, 54, of Baldwin Borough; and Rudolph 'Rudy' Simko, 61, of Jefferson Borough. Golling and Williams were walking together and Simko was walking alone, investigators believe. Assistant Allegheny County Police Superintendent Paul Wolf said Edward Gill was traveling north on Corrigan Drive and was in the process of passing some cars when he lost control of the late-model gold Cadillac he was driving. The crash occurred at 1:12 p.m. just south of the intersection of Maple Spring Drive and McConkey Road, Wolf said. Park manager Jim Roach said he was told by some emergency officials that the driver may have been stricken by a medical problem - such as a heart attack - but Wolf said he could not confirm that. Wolf also said there was no sign of medication in the wreckage. However, police were waiting to talk to physicians today about reports that Edward Gill had a history of heart problems. Kubany, 72, of South Park, and her friend, Bender, 78, of Scott Township, were driving to Bethel Park when they were passed by the Cadillac. 'We were coming through South Park past the horse stables, and the car passed us normally because two policemen were parked there. It was all normal,' Kubany said. 'I was going 25 miles per hour, and he passed us normal. He wasn't doing much more than that,' Bender agreed. The speed limit in the park is 25 mph. As Bender and Kubany continued up the road, they watched as the Cadillac passed some other cars. 'Then he seemed to accelerate very heavily. I don't know what happened. He just accelerated,' Bender said. 'It was like he tramped it to the floor because he kicked up a lot of dust on the road. I said: 'Look at that fellow. He's really traveling.' 'I said to Tom: 'Looks like a bad driver, huh.' He zoomed over real fast, turned into the right lane and hit three pedestrians and a fence and a tree,' Kubany said. There were no visible skid marks on the road at the scene. Wolf said there was no evidence that the driver was trying to stop his car. Passing motorists told police they saw the Cadillac stopped in the right lane south near the intersection before it started moving again, Wolf said. 'They told us the driver was sitting up, not slumped over,' he said. 'The vehicle was accelerating' as it crossed the road and came toward the path, said Wolf, adding that he could not provide an estimate of its speed. The Cadillac then crossed over into the opposite lanes of road, clipped a gravel parking lot on the left side of the intersection and veered sharply back across four lanes of traffic. It cleared a small curb separating the road from the paved multipurpose path and struck the three pedestrians from behind, Wolf said. The Cadillac then passed between two trees and crashed head-on into another tree just in front of a fenced construction site, where a new children's playground is being built. 'I seen things flying into the air. I couldn't figure out what it was. I saw him hit the fence. I didn't know he hit people,' Bender said. 'All we saw were things flying into the air, shredded things. It looked like someone was celebrating and throwing all kinds of different things up into the air. We wondered what he hit. We didn't know he hit anybody,' Kubany said. 'Tom made a U-turn and went back to the two policemen and told them there was a bad accident. The cops didn't know anything about it. They flew down there.' Kubany and Bender drove back to the scene of the accident to see mangled bodies, severed limbs and clothing strewn across the area. 'We saw a lot of shoes and socks and hats over in the green grass. They lost all their things like that,' Kubany said. 'It wasn't very nice what I saw,' Bender said. 'I saw this Caddy up against a tree and bodies laying all over the ground,' Roach said. Philip Heidenreich of Whitehall, who regularly runs in the park, said the Cadillac's engine was pushed into the passenger compartment and the headlights were wrapped around the tree. Dozens of people gathered to look at the scene while police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel from Bethel Park and Broughton covered up the bodies and began reconstructing the accident. The accident occurred not far from where a memorial stands for Kelly Boyle, 22, of Library, who died in a one-vehicle crash on Nov. 27, 1994. Several residents said the lack of barriers between the walking and bicycle path and the road makes the area unsafe. 'They should have a Jersey barrier up there along this whole road,' said George Korinko, a longtime South Park resident who grew up using the park. A Jersey barrier is a type of concrete wall that is commonly placed along highways and bridges to separate traffic. Korinko said barriers along Corrigan Drive - 10-inch diameter log sections atop log footers - were removed at least a decade ago when the bicycle path was paved. At that time, concrete barriers about 3 feet tall were installed but were buried so that only the top several inches are above ground. The bicycle path is actually slightly below the road surface, so there is nothing to prevent a car from leaving the roadway and reaching the path. 'That doesn't seem like common sense to me,' Korinko said. Brian Nearing can be reached at bnearing@tribweb.com or (412) 391-0927. Brian C. Rittmeyer can be reached at brittmeyer@tribweb.com or (412) 306-4540. Staff writer Michael Hasch contributed to this report.

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