Elderly Victim Of East Pittsburgh Crash Identified
EAST PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- There are new details today following a crash Friday evening in East Pittsburgh that claimed the life of an elderly man and left several others, including a police officer and paramedic, injured.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office identifies the driver killed in the three-car accident on Route 30 as 86-year-old Albert Muhlenbecher of East Pittsburgh.
Authorities say Muhlenbecher's car crossed the center line and slammed into two oncoming vehicles.
When it happened, Earl Kauffman heard a series of loud noises. The back of his house faces the crash scene on Route 30.
"It shook my whole house. It was a tremendous thud," said Kauffman. "At that point, we jumped up and ran to the back of my house. We thought it hit our home."
Kauffman says he ran outside to help the victims. He says the woman in the white car needed medical assistance and the driver of the black car was not hurt seriously, but Muhlenbecher was slumped over in his car and unresponsive.
Unfortunately, that was the first of two accidents along that same stretch of highway last night.
The second accident involved a driver for Priority One Ambulance service who had just arrived on the scene.
"Everybody was getting out of the vehicles; I guess the guy forgot to put it in park. The ambulance had hit the ambulance driver, I guess," said Kauffman. "I heard thud, thud. I turned around, the guy is rolling on the ground, the ambulance is rolling toward the red car."
Fortunately, a police officer was able to jump into the ambulance and put it in park before it hit one of the wrecked vehicles. But the ambulance driver was injured.
"I'm going to gather that he got hit by the ambulance itself," Kauffman said.
Priority One Ambulance has declined to comment on the accident. There's no information available on the condition of the paramedic or the police officer who was also injured.
Meanwhile, the Medical Examiner's Office has ruled that Muhlenbecher died from blunt force trauma to the head and trunk.
The accident is still under investigation.
RELATED LINKS:
1 Dead, Several Injured In East Pittsburgh Crashes (12/20/13)
More Reports by Bob Allen
