Ellsworth man dies in I-70 crash
Responders to a fatal crash on Interstate 70 Thursday night take time to comfort Al Marcy, a part-time patrolman injured in the crash, and say a short prayer.
Traffic was backed up on Interstate 70 Thursday night after a three-vehicle crash that killed an Ellsworth man.
An off-duty police officer in the Mon Valley was seriously injured in a fatal crash on Interstate 70 Thursday night.
Al Marcy, a part-time patrolman with the Roscoe, Elco, Stockdale and Allenport Regional Police Department, underwent surgery Friday for a leg fracture suffered in the 9:20 p.m. crash just east of the Bentleyville interchange that killed an Ellsworth man, said Tom Wilkinson, chairman of the regional police board.
“We were worried all night,” Wilkinson said Friday.
Jeffrey Dunlap, 50, was pronounced dead at the scene after his car, which was traveling west at a high speed, struck the rear of a tractor-trailer and was tossed over a concrete barrier. State police said Dunlap’s car then struck Marcy’s eastbound sport-utility vehicle, causing it to roll onto its roof. Dunlap was ejected through the back window of his vehicle.
Marcy, a captain at Stockdale Volunteer Fire Department, was lucky because had he been on the highway a second sooner, the car likely would have landed on his vehicle, Wilkinson said. He’s expected to have a long recovery from his injuries.
Every firefighter at the scene of the crash took time to comfort Marcy as one of them said a brief prayer for his recovery while he was being taken to a medical helicopter, according to a post on Fallowfield Volunteer Fire Company’s Facebook page.
Marcy, who also is a retired Washington County sheriff’s deputy, was flown to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, where he also was being treated for broken ribs, Sheriff Sam Romano said. UPMC had no information Friday on his condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
He’s also a referee and had just left a football meeting at a Bentleyville restaurant when the crash occurred, Wilkinson said.
Staff writer Kathie Warco contributed to this report.