Sto-Rox crossing guard heralded as 'hero'

A Stowe family is praising a veteran school crossing guard for pushing a first-grader out of the path of a car as the vehicle hit the woman, bouncing her off the hood and onto the pavement.

Dorothy Bennett was on duty Tuesday morning at the intersection of Dohrman Street and Russellwood Avenue in the West Park neighborhood when she halted traffic to allow Susan Hine and Hine's 6-year-old grandson, Zachery Pike, to cross.

"We were walking together when I heard Dorothy say, 'She's not stopping!' She pushed Zach out of the way," Hine, 59, said Wednesday. "Zach got hit by the bumper, but Dorothy took the full brunt of the car. If it wasn't for her, Zach would really have gotten hurt real bad. Her main concern was to get him out of the way. Thank God she did."

"Everything happened so fast," said Hine, who also was hit by the car. "She saved his little butt. She's our hero."

Hine and Pike — a student at St. Malachy School in Kennedy — were taken to Ohio Valley Hospital, where they were treated and released.

Bennett was in serious condition last night in Allegheny General Hospital, North Side.

"I went to see her, and she was in good spirits," said Pike's mother, Vanessa Hine. "Her daughter said she was a nervous wreck until she found out Zach and my mother were OK."

Stowe police did not release details of the incident.

"Mrs. Bennett has been a crossing guard for several decades and has always been a very conscientious worker and is well regarded by many families and students," said Sto-Rox School Board member Edward Maritz Jr. "It would not surprise me if Mrs. Bennett did take such heroic measures to her own peril. ... I wish we had 20 more crossing guards like her."