Jim Sandrovich was backing out of his driveway on Sportsman Drive in Washington Township when he heard the impact.
“All of a sudden, I saw smoke out there, and everyone was coming out,” the 30-year resident said. “I thought the truck hit a tree.”
Instead, the tanker collided head-on with an SUV, killing that vehicle’s driver.
The Westmoreland County coroner identified the man as Christopher J. Negley, 48, of Washington Township. Negley was alone in his vehicle and not wearing a seat belt, the coroner said.
The crash on Route 66, just south of where the highway diverges from Route 356, happened just before 10 a.m. near the former state police station, said Washington Township police Chief Jason Montgomery.
Negley was traveling south on Route 66 when, for unknown reasons, his SUV went into the northbound lane, Montgomery said. The tractor-trailer was traveling north and they collided in the northbound lane. After the impact, the SUV went off the road into a ditch between Route 66 and Sportsman Drive.
A 48 year old man from Washington Township is dead after police say he drove an SUV into the path of a tanker truck on Route 66. His name has not yet been released. pic.twitter.com/8YgHXlpIBN
— Brian Rittmeyer (@BCRittmeyer) October 31, 2024
The truck driver was not injured, Montgomery said. He said the McCutcheon Enterprises tanker truck was loaded but with nothing hazardous and was not leaking.
Traffic on Route 66 was diverted onto side roads. The road reopened about 3:30 p.m.
Sandrovich and other neighbors said there have been a number of crashes in the area, usually at the nearby intersection of Route 66 with Sportsman Drive and Pine Run Church Road. This crash, Sandrovich noted, is on a straight section of road before the intersection.
A memorial for a 17-year-old girl killed in a crash in 2007 in the same area stands nearby.
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Dentist Robert Obradovich, who has had his office along Route 66 for 39 years, said he was worried the crash involved one of his patients. He recalled, in 1996, a woman pulling out of his parking lot was killed in a car crash. He said he advises people to turn right out of his parking lot instead of left because of the road’s safety issue.
“That area down there has some accidents over the years,” he said.
Obradovich was with a patient at the time of the crash Thursday. Skidmarks from the truck’s tires could be seen on Route 66 in front of his office.
“We heard a very loud bang. It was obvious something happened,” he said.
Charlie Elicker was in the backyard of his Sportsman Drive home when he heard the fire whistle, followed by fire trucks.
“I knew something wasn’t good,” Elicker said. “Whenever you hear that many alarms going off, you know it’s not good.”
Elicker has lived in Washington Township since 2016 and said the road and intersection are dangerous.
“This is a bad place here. It’s bad. People have been killed here,” he said.
Asked how many crashes he has seen, Elicker said: “I couldn’t put a number on it; it’s more than both hands. You can count on two or three accidents every year here, and some of them have taken lives.”
Duster Funeral Home in Tarentum will be handling arrangements for Negley.
