State police report four fatal crashes over holiday, including one in Fayette
State police across Pennsylvania conducted traffic enforcement and sobriety checkpoints over the New Year’s holiday weekend, resulting in an increase in arrests and a decrease in crashes.
Troop B – which includes Greene, Washington, Fayette and parts of Westmoreland and Allegheny counties – investigated one of four statewide fatal crashes over the four-day span. On Sunday, 68-year-old Norman J. Ciaccia of Farmington was killed when his vehicle was hit head-on by a truck that was towing a trailer with a car inside at about noon on Route 40 west in Wharton Township. The second driver was identified as Dane Patrick Revello, 50, of Somerset County. Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
Police said one of the other four fatal crashes involved alcohol. State police investigated 642 crashes statewide between Saturday and Tuesday. Sixty-four of those involved alcohol. A total of 155 people were injured. Over a three-day New Year’s holiday enforcement period last year, state police investigated 1,169 crashes.
In Troop B, state police investigated a total of 43 crashes with 10 total injuries. Four of the crashes involved alcohol. Police also made 25 DUI arrests and 26 criminal arrests. They issued 144 citations for speed, 11 for child safety seats, 45 for seat belts, 629 other citations and seven seat belt warnings.
Statewide, state police arrested 406 people for DUI compared to 284 last year. They also issued a total of 6,370 speeding citations, 476 seat belt citations and 115 child safety seat citations.