Man hit by car, killed on Saltsburg Road in Penn Hills

A 66-year-old man died Wednesday afternoon after being hit by a car while crossing Saltsburg Road toward a McDonald’s restaurant in Penn Hills, police said.

Allegheny County police said in a news release that a man, who has not yet been identified, was crossing Saltsburg Road when he was hit by a Toyota Corolla.

The crash happened shortly before 1:30 p.m. on Saltsburg Road just south of Twin Oak Drive. The driver remained on scene.

Medics and police arrived to find a man’s body lying on the two-way street between a car wash and the McDonald’s in the Alcoma Plaza shopping center.

Tammy Guastaferro, 47, had just picked up her children from Penn Hills Elementary School, which closed early because of a water main break. She parked outside state Rep. Tony DeLuca’s office in Alcoma Plaza, where she planned to bring to the lawmaker’s attention a large hole in the ground posing a safety issue in her neighborhood.

She leaned into the car to get her purse when she heard tires squealing and a bang.

“Mommy, he got hit! He got hit!” her 8-year-old son, David, called out.

She turned and saw someone on the ground near a car with a smashed windshield. She rushed over to see if anyone needed help.

“He wasn’t moving,” Guastaferro said. “He was face down on the ground.”

A few people got out of their cars to help, including someone who tried administering CPR before police and an ambulance arrived.

Her son witnessed the crash.

“The guy was going fast down the road, and he tried to slam on his brakes, and he didn’t stop automatically. He slid and hit him. It was scary,” David said.

David said cars continued to drive around the man in the street. Finally, police came to block the road and tend to him.

“I think maybe he was going to McDonald’s to eat. But he died,” David said.

Several witnesses say that the majority of cars did not stop and continued driving through the area until police arrived.

“You see a body on the ground, wouldn’t you stop? That just feels rude, they kept going around him. They’re going slow because they’re seeing it, but yet everybody just kept going, and nobody was stopping traffic,” Guastaferro said. “I just wish people had more respect. If something that bad is going on: stop — or turn around and go the other way.”

Officials from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office and homicide investigators got to the crash site shortly before 2:30 p.m.

The crash shut down Saltsburg Road between Alcoma Plaza and Twin Oak Drive for several hours.

Authorities are urging everyone to avoid Saltsburg Road in Penn Hills, where a pedestrian was killed.

It’s closed between Twin Oak and Alcoma Plaza — but cars keep trying to cut through the shopping plaza parking lots on either side. #traffic #PennHills #Pittsburgh @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/JPpZqAaj1J

— Natasha Lindstrom (@NewsNatasha) June 12, 2019

County police said they would turn over their findings to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, which will determine if charges against the driver are warranted.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Allegheny County Police tip line at 1-833-255-8477 and callers can remain anonymous.

Natasha Lindstrom and Dillon Carr are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Natasha at 412-380-8514, nlindstrom@tribweb.com or via Twitter @NewsNatasha. You can contact Dillon at 412-871-2325, dcarr@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dillonswriting.