After receiving hundreds of complaints, compiling countless accidents, and enduring the death of promising young 28-year-old Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese employee on Friday, PENNDoT will finally begin to rethink how a dangerous Route 8 intersection should be handled.
Police told reporters that the bus driver was travelling south along Route 8 and turned left on to East Hardies Road when the driver of a pick-up truck, heading north, struck the bus as it was turning. The impact of the collision sent the student-less bus into and on top of the victim's car. The victim was sitting at a red light at the time of the accident. He was taken to a local hospital, but was pronounced dead upon arrival. Friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances had nothing but great things to say about the recently married man who was "a great guy" and "loved everybody," according to one person that knew him.
The man in the pick-up truck was injured and taken to an area hospital to be treated, but his condition has not been made available. The bus driver will undergo blood tests as is necessary after any school bus accident.
The intersection in question is Route 8 and East Hardies Road in Hampton Township. People who work along Route 8 near the intersection told reporters that it seems there's always some kind of accident at that four-way stoplight. They say that too many people who are trying to turn get backed up without a green arrow, causing many to make quick and dangerous turns in an attempt to beat traffic coming straight ahead. The Hampton Township assistant manager told reporters that there were several requests made to Harrisburg from 1999 to 2004 to rework that intersection. It wasn't until just weeks before this fatal crash, fifteen years after the original request, that Pennsylvania decided to approve a $2.8 million project that would fix this intersection and others like it along Route 8. Construction begins at the end of the month and will likely commence in October or November.
Source: WPXI, "28-year-old Diocese of Pittsburgh worker killed in Hampton Twp. crash" 14 March 2014