Wrong-way driver causes head-on crash on Route 30 in Hempfield Township
Pennsylvania State Police troopers in Westmoreland County are working to figure out how a driver got on the wrong side of Route 30, causing a crash that sent two people to the hospital.
It happened on Wednesday night on Route 30 just past the Cedar Road exit in Hempfield Township.
Investigators believe 83-year-old Nancy Duva entered Route 30 going the wrong way at the Mt. Pleasant Road interchange. While it's still unclear why this happened, police said there are numerous signs to alert drivers that read "do not enter" and "wrong way."
"She didn't make it very far, and she collided with two vehicles," Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said.
A video, captured by a driver in the westbound lanes of Route 30, shows the exact moment the wrong-way driver hits a pickup truck head-on.
"I would think she would have had to have this 'oh my God' moment at some point in time and just wasn't able to make a good enough decision to somehow get off of the road and try and pull onto the burm," Limani said
Duva and the driver of the pickup truck, Jace Bartsch, were transported to Forbes Regional Hospital, both in serious condition.
Trooper Limani believes it's a miracle no one else was hurt, given the fact that Duva was headed the wrong way during rush hour. The video, he stressed, speaks for itself.
"There's a lot things that could have happened way worse than what happened," Limani said.
Trooper Limani said Pennsylvania leads the country in vehicles traveling the wrong way on one-way roads. He added that state police work closely with PennDOT to make state roads safer.
PennDOT told KDKA-TV in 2023 that there were 45 crashes involving wrong-way drivers on Pennsylvania expressways. Of those, five resulted in deaths and 62 in injuries.
"We're constantly working on highway safety improvement. It's always our top priority. In this case, as a countermeasure, we always try to install and incorporate the proper signage to deter these kinds of incidents," PennDOT District 12 Traffic Engineer Dave Parker said.
State police said they haven't had the chance to interview the involved parties as they're both still in the hospital recovering. Once they're able to interview them, they'll have a better understanding of what exactly happened.
