BETHEL — Pam Smail couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched a pickup slam into the end of her daughter’s mobile home along Route 66 on Thursday afternoon.

Smail had just dropped off her daughter, Cathy Booher, and son-in-law Kelly, at their home at 1355 Route 66 moments before, and was standing at her nearby mailbox getting her mail when she turned her head and noticed a pickup go off the road and through the snow-covered yard and strike the home.

State police identified the driver of the truck as Robert Morrow, 52, of Templeton. Police said he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

The accident occurred at 3:02 p.m. Thursday, just south of Purple’s Saloon and Kelly Station Road. Fire crews from Bethel and Gilpin townships, along with Ford City Ambulance, were called to the scene.

Bethel Fire Chief Jim Reiderer said Morrow had serious facial and chest injuries and was conscious and communicating with emergency personnel when they arrived. Morrow was taken by ambulance to a medical helicopter, which was waiting in the bar parking lot. He was then flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Smail said the collision broke out several windows in her daughter’s home, as well as rupturing water and utility lines. The force also knocked furniture, pictures and the television over, causing an unknown amount of damage.

“I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said. “It was like a nightmare and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. All of a sudden, there was a truck coming through the yard, right at the house.”

Smail said the couple’s car was not running and she had taken them to run errands prior to the accident and had dropped the couple off before driving another 50 yards to the entrance of her driveway. The Booher’s son, Alex, was at school at the time of the incident.

Police said Morrow’s 1994 Chevrolet 1500 traveled roughly 375 feet through the yard, nearly missing two cement fixtures in the yard. Thursday’s accident occurred about 150 yards south of a similar accident nearly 15 years ago, in which the driver of a pickup went off the road and came to rest under a mobile home.

State police said the cause of the accident Thursday is under investigation.

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