Crash closes road
Waynesburg police Chief Rob Toth, right, and Officer Ryan Griffin survey the damage on High Street in the borough after a tanker truck crashed into a utility pole and two vehicles Thursday morning.
West Penn Power crews worked Thursday to repair multiple utility poles damaged earlier in the day when a tanker truck crashed on High Street in Waynesburg.
WAYNESBURG – A tanker truck drifted backwards down High Street in Waynesburg Thursday morning, hitting two vehicles and shearing off a utility pole, requiring the road to be closed to traffic for more than eight hours.
No one was injured, but the driver of the tanker truck, Walter Siwula, 55, of Mt. Pleasant, was taken to WHS-Greene hospital in Waynesburg for evaluation to determine if he had suffered a medical issue that led to the 6:40 a.m. crash near East Street.
High Street was closed to traffic from East to Morgan streets until about 2:45 p.m. as West Penn Power crews replace the utility pole and lines damaged in a crash. Traffic was detoured onto Franklin Street. About 700 customers of West Penn Power were without service during the morning and part of the afternoon as crews de-energized the lines to make repairs.
Siwula, a driver for Elite Oilfield Services, was unable to tell police what happened following the crash, Waynesburg police Officer Ryan Griffin said.
“He was saying he wasn’t even sure if he had caused this,” Griffin said.
Witnesses told police they watched as Siwula’s truck almost hit several parked cars as it traveled west on High Street, Griffin said. The truck came to a stop near the top of town hill, possibly for traffic, Griffin said.
“For whatever reason, the truck then started rolling backwards,” he said.
It first struck an unattended car parked at the curb, Griffin said. The truck then sheared off a utility pole on the south side of the road and struck a pickup truck driven by Donald Gray, 56, of New Geneva, who was uninjured.
“He said he saw the tanker truck coming but had nowhere to go” to avoid being hit, Griffin said.
The tanker truck pushed Gray’s pickup backwards into the construction site of Gateway Senior Housing, where excavation work is now underway. The tanker truck also came to rest in the Gateway site.
George Koratich, senior operations manager for Elite Oil Services, said Siwula was not injured. He could not comment further on his medical condition.
Another company truck had been following Siwula’s truck and the driver witnessed the crash, Koratich said. The only difference between accounts given by the driver of the other truck and police was that Siwula apparently lost control of the vehicle driving up the hill and hit the parked car, then began drifting backwards, Koratich said.
Company personnel were at the scene “in force” early Thursday to remove the truck and try to get everything back to normal as soon as possible, he said. Siwula’s water tank was empty and no diesel spilled, Koratich said.
“As bad as it was, it could have been much worse. … Thankfully no one was hurt,” Koratich said. “Elite is sorry for any inconvenience it might have caused anybody.”
Griffin said there was nothing to indicate Siwula was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but standard procedures for a driver with a commercial driver’s license involved in a crash requires the driver be tested for drug or alcohol use.