Everyone in this story will be forever changed from this moment on. Two young ladies walking across 7^th street in downtown Pittsburgh were hit by a truck going out of control. One young woman was in critical condition at the scene and into the next morning at Allegheny General Hospital. The other young woman was stable but was taken to Mercy hospital. These young ladies were walking with the light in the cross walk when the truck struck them both. One was thrown onto the sidewalk and the other was thrown into the paper boxes on the corner and fell onto the street next to the curb as the truck went up on the curb and back down hitting an awaiting vehicle on 7^th street waiting for the light to change. Both girls were reported to be CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) students, which the University has not made any comment confirming or denying the fact. Names of the victims were not released by deadline. As police worked on the young woman the driver of the truck was obviously upset due to what happened.

                                                       He was pacing back and forth looking at the young woman on the ground crying, holding his head and rubbing his face as he kept asking if she would be alright.  From the other side of the victim a man from the street started to scream, yelling, “Officer, officer that guy was speeding, he hit that girl”, about the man that was driving the truck. The driver started yelling back at the man saying, “no I wasn’t, I was not speeding, that car cut me off”. At the time there were only two port-authority officers on the scene and they were trying to check the victim and get everyone back from the scene. The crowd grew on the sidewalk more and more by the young woman who was hit by the truck making it even harder to keep everyone back from the victim and make sure she was stable until the medics arrived. Another vehicle was parked across the street from the victim on 7^thstreet and the driver was in the street yelling he was calling “911”, as he was yelled at, to get out of the street and to stand by his car. The driver of the car was asked if the truck hit his car and that is when the driver stated, “no he didn’t hit us, I cut off the truck and caused this accident, It is my fault that girl got hit”, then he hugged who seemed to be his girlfriend as they both started to cry. Fire, EMS and medics arrived on the scene and started to attend to the young woman as soon as they got out of the trucks. Passer biers on the street walking, walked right by the medics and the victim just to take a look at the young girl and to see what was happening which only contaminated the scene even more. There was blood on the street and people walked right through it to be able to walk past the victim and first responders to be able to see better. Some first responders had yelled at people and made them go another way; however they were more worried about the welfare of the victim to be able to stop all of the people just walking by to get a look-see. Even when other police arrived on the scene they had to see if there were any witnesses and take their information and statements on what they had seen. Since it was right before 4pm in the afternoon and the streets were crowded with people there were a lot of witnesses. On one side many said that the truck was speeding past and made the turn wide and hit the young women in the cross walk.

                                                       On the other side there were witnesses that made statements that the truck was cut off and had to speed up and turn so that he did not “T-Bone” the car. With taking about a dozen statements and getting contact information from all of the witnesses police still did not have the whole scene secure due to the lack of police on scene. After the young women were taken to the hospitals some of the officers started to secure the scene as others kept taking statements from witnesses. The fire department had gotten buckets of water and dumped them on the scene where the blood was due to so many people just walking pass for no reason but to get a look. The City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police's “CI” Unit, (Collision Investigations Unit) had yet to arrive on scene due to another investigation going on at almost the same time. When “CI”arrived on the scene, Sargent Daniel Connolly who is the head of “CI” took charge of the scene and started to take photographs of the scene and vehicles as well as get statements from the people in all three vehicles. With photographs, obtained from a freelance photojournalist who was on scene, “CI” photographs, and statements from all eye witnesses as well as those from people in all three vehicles. CI's Sargent Connolly will put together what exactly happened. Sargent Connolly did not say if there would be charges in the case or who would be charged if there were any. There was no time table given at the scene for when the results would be in from the investigation. The well being of either young woman was not known at time of publishing this story. Port Authority Police, Pittsburgh EMS, Fire and rescue and Pittsburgh Police did a great job on getting onto the scene and taking care of the victims quickly.

 Taken from the City of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police's webite this is what CI or Collision investigation is and begun.

 The Collision Investigation Unit began in 1990, with three officers trained in crash reconstruction. Today, the unit has grown to over 15, highly trained and equipped officers who thoroughly investigate all crashes that involve critical injuries and fatalities. All officers are trained in multidiscipline aspects of crash reconstruction to include pedestrians, commercial vehicles and motorcycles. The unit utilizes state of the art equipment such as Total Stations, 2D and 3D animation and Black Box technology. In addition, the unit investigates all emergency vehicle crashes, assists outside agencies and promotes highway safety through education.

http://pittsburghpa.gov/police/specialty_units.htm#collision

Written By: J.L.Martello / 18ricco

Edited By: J.L.Martello / 18ricco

Contact "Ricco" J.L.Martello / 18ricco

Cell: 412-583-6901

Email: martellogino@yahoo.com