Crash Victim Steals Pickup, Drags Good Samaritan Who Stopped To Help
CARNEGIE, Pa. (AP/KDKA) - Pennsylvania State Police are searching for a crash victim who stole the pickup truck of a Good Samaritan who stopped to help him.
Police don't know the crash victim's name, saying only that he smashed into a guide rail on Interstate 79 near the Carnegie exit.
When the pickup driver pulled over to help him, police say the crash victim jumped into the man's pickup and drove off, dragging the pickup driver about 100 feet before the man released or fell off the vehicle.
The Good Samaritan is 54-year-old Todd Krut from Claysville, Washington County. He was taken to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Krut's injuries include two broken feet and brush burns over most of his body.
"I was heading down the Parkway and I got onto 79 heading south, and I'm in the middle lane and somebody came flying by me on the right-hand side, cut right in front of me, and headed straight across into the median, then ran into the guard rail," Krut said. "So I figured someone was hurt."
Krut pulled over to see if he could help.
"When I did that, he got into my truck and drove off in my truck," he said. "When I grabbed ahold of the truck, I got my hand caught in the handle on the back of the door, and he just dragged me right down the highway."
Krut says he can't remember what happened between then and when he woke up in the emergency room.
"Three broken bones in that foot, fracture in this foot," he said. "The ankle is really sore. The knee is really sore. From being dragged by my arm, I've got pain up [by his shoulder], pain where it separated the muscles between your ribs and everything, and [his torso] is all scrapped up from road rash."
Krut's recovery is going to take months.
Police say the crash victim drove off the Carnegie exit and that police were still searching for him Monday.
Sources told KDKA the victim's truck was found Tuesday night in Crafton, but the whereabouts of the man who stole it are still unknown.
The car that crashed was also a stolen car.
Krut believes the suspect was a black male in his early 30's. He was wearing blue shorts, a blue shirt and tennis shoes at the time of the incident.
So what's Krut's message for the guy who took his truck?
"Get help. He needs help," he said. "If he's out there driving 2 o'clock in the morning, intoxicated... in a stolen van, he needs help."
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(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)