Woman injured when boulder strikes car, rockslide closes road in East McKeesport
A rockslide Thursday morning sent large rocks and debris plunging onto 5th Avenue in the East McKeesport and Wilmerding area, striking a car and sending one driver to the hospital.
Another, driver, Chuck Spaulding, told Pittsburgh's Action News 4 he witnessed the impact and came to the aid of the injured woman.
"I had all my windows down on my car and I could hear the rocks on the hillside. And as I look up to my left, I can see smaller rocks coming down. And then I look up again and I see boulders — I mean, the size of me-sized boulders come down the hill. I hit my brakes. I lock my brakes up," Spaulding said.
"Then a lady, she was in a Chevy Malibu, she came up the hill. The rocks came down. One of them landed on the hood of her car and then she slammed into a couple of the other ones as she come up the hill," Spaulding said.
"I kind of caught my breath for a second then I got down and went out and made sure she was alright. She said her back hurt, her leg hurt. The inside of the car was filled with white smoke. It kind of looked like her airbags had went off but nothing actually deployed," Spaulding said.
Paramedics took the victim to UPMC McKeesport Hospital for evaluation and treatment.
"There was still rocks sliding down the hill. So me and a couple other guys helped her get out of the car, calmed her down a little bit," Spaulding said. "Then got her into the passenger seat of my car while somebody else was calling 911 and get everybody here that needed to be here."
For hours, drivers faced roadblocks in both directions on 5th Avenue between Penn Avenue in East McKeesport and Patton Street in Wilmerding.
Allegheny County Department of Public Works dispatched a maintenance crew to clear the roadway, but it was not reopened until a county geotechnical engineer inspected the hillside.
The county says the hillside does not pose a further danger.
Allegheny County Public Works Director Stephen Shanley came to the scene and spoke with Pittsburgh's Action News 4.
"At this time, everything is secure. That's shale and weathered sandstone on these hillsides, which is typical in this area of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh region," Shanley said.
"Due to the rain last night, that could have loosened some of this material up and freeze-thaw also plays a factor. So they looked at the hillside and didn't see any other potential areas at this time that could come down and we opened up the road," Shanley said.
Authorities have not made public the name of the woman who was injured.
"If either one of us would have been 10, 15 seconds sooner than what we were, they could have landed on my car, knocked my car off the other side of the hillside. They could have landed on her car (roof)," Spaulding said.