Woman Injured After Vehicle Flips, Lands On Railroad Tracks
BEAVER FALLS (KDKA) – A 25-year-old woman was hurt in a crash Monday morning in Beaver Falls.
Officials say the woman lost her brakes coming down a steep hill, known locally as the 11th Street Hill.
Her car hit an embankment, flew through the air and flipped over. It landed upside down on the train tracks near the 11th Street crossing.
"[It] traveled through the air probably 100, 150 feet," says Mark Stowe, Fire Chief for the city of Beaver Falls. "Hit the ground, hit the tracks…and went airborne again right into the second set of rails. At that point, the car hit head-on into the rail and flipped it over, landing on a steel fence."
Officials say, had it not been for the fence, the car would have rolled further down the hill and on to 10th Avenue below. The woman was partially thrown from the car.
It was a race against time to get her out.
"The trains were not stopped yet," says Chief Stowe. "The railroad at that time was having difficulty getting the trains stopped. So, we had to perform rapid extrication to get off the rails in the event a train came, which it didn't, thank God. She was conscious and alert during the extrication."
The woman, who officials say was pregnant, was flown to UPMC Mercy Hospital for treatment. Details about her condition, or her unborn child's, have not been released.
Railroad officials were able to stop traffic in the area while the crash scene was cleaned up.
Authorities are now trying to figure out if the force of the crash damaged the tracks.
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