Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Route 5 crash kills driver

LAKE CITY -- A 77-year-old Lake City man was killed Monday in a two-car accident on Route 5 near the intersection of Nursery Road in Girard Township, state police said.

Otto S. "Luke" Warner was pronounced dead at Hamot Medical Center at 10:53 a.m. He was not wearing a seat belt, police said.

State police at Girard said the accident happened at 9:49 a.m. as Warner's 1995 Buick Century was at a stop sign on Culbertson Drive.

Police said Julie E. Brown, 32, of Lake City, was westbound on Route 5 in a 1995 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight when she swerved to avoid a westbound car that had stopped to turn left onto Nursery Road. Police said Brown lost control of her car and hit Warner's car on the driver's side.

Brown's car struck a tree after hitting Warner's car, police said, adding that Brown was not wearing a seat belt.A Lake City Volunteer Fire Department ambulance drove Brown to Hamot Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition Monday night.

-GoErie.com, Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Deaf man killed by train

A deaf Erie man was accidentally struck and killed by a train, one day after his 19th birthday.

Police said a train struck and killed Devon Chambers at 2:04 p.m. Friday while he was walking home along CSX and Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks east near 16th and Myrtle streets.

Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said Chambers, of East 11th Street, was killed instantly by the train that was moving at 30 mph.

Cook said the death was accidental because it appeared Chambers did not hear the train approaching.

He could not hear the train, his family said, because he was deaf."I'm sure he didn't hear the horn from the train. I'm thinking maybe he thought he could cross the tracks without any problem," said Carlotta Freeman, Chambers' cousin and family spokeswoman. "We have busy streets over here. He knows to slow down and pay attention.

"She said Chambers' birthday was Thursday. Because of conflicting events, the birthday party and cookout was rescheduled for Friday afternoon at Chambers' home."We wanted to have all the family together," Freeman said.

She said police notified Chambers' mother, Nicki Chambers, at her place of employment about her son's death. Nicki Chambers declined to comment Friday evening.


Freeman described her cousin as fun-loving, an avid basketball player and a huge fan of hanging out at the Trinity Center, 462 W. 18th St.

She said the Chambers family recently moved to their home on the west side. It was Devon Chambers' nephews who told him about a shortcut over the railroad tracks to the Trinity Center, which is where he was coming from Friday.

Attempts to reach an official at the Trinity Center were unsuccessful.

Freeman said the birthday party was going to be the last major celebration for the family before Chambers returned to the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Pittsburgh later this month.

Erie police detectives are investigating the details of the case.

Driver charged in I-90 crash

A paralyzed Erie man who police say caused a fatal two-vehicle accident on Interstate 90 in July now faces charges that he was drunk at the time.

Paul Staub, 44, faces 10 charges in all, including two drunken-driving charges.

Staub's blood-alcohol content at the time was 0.8 percent, the lowest amount classified as driving under the influence, State Police Trooper Eric McGuire said.

Staub also faces two misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment and six summary charges for traffic violations, including speeding, failing to signal a turn and reckless driving.

Staub, who was paralyzed from the chest down after falling 13 feet at a work site in 1993, was driving with adaptive controls that allowed him to operate the vehicle with his hands alone.

His preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 27. Police charged Staub on Thursday.The two-vehicle accident happened at about 4 p.m. on July 17 just east of the Wesleyville exit in Harborcreek Township.

A passenger in the other vehicle, Larry W. Wood, 60, of Germantown, Tenn., was killed in the accident.The driver, Preston M. Pennybacker, 51, of Lowell, Ind., was seriously injured.

McGuire said Staub was driving to a friend's house in the eastbound lane of I-90 when he swerved his van into the side of Pennybacker's tractor-trailer cab.

Police said both vehicles traveled into the median. Staub's van hit a crossover, police said, became airborne and struck the guide rail on the far side of the westbound lanes. The van rolled down an embankment and came to rest against trees about 40 yards away, police said.

Staub was thrown from the vehicle, McGuire said.Witnesses said that Pennybacker's rig began to jackknife, went into the median, struck an embankment and rolled before stopping. Pennybacker was wearing his seat belt, but Wood was moving from the back of the cabin to the passenger's seat and was standing when the rig was struck, McGuire said.

-GoErie.com, Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Crash kills student

An Erie student on his way to fall classes at Pennsylvania State University died Sunday when the sport utility vehicle in which he was riding — a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by a friend — crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer.


Nicholas P. Caccavo, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene, on Interstate 80 in Clearfield County. His friend, 19-year-old Shawn P. Browne, was taken to Altoona Hospital, where he was in fair condition Monday night. Both teens were 2006 graduates of Northwestern Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy. They were to be sophomores at Penn State.


Caccavo was an engineering major, said Erie schools Superintendent Jim Barker, a close friend of the Caccavo family.


Caccavo and Browne were driving to University Park. Classes begin Aug. 27.


At about 3:05 p.m. Sunday, in Graham Township, Clearfield County, a tractor-trailer slowed for traffic, state police said. Browne did not notice, police said. His Jeep struck the back of the rig and then rolled.


Both teens were wearing seat belts, police said. The truck’s driver, Robert Murphy, of Iowa, was not injured.


-GoErie.com, Tuesday, August 21, 2007