The identity of the man killed in yesterday’s crash along 219 has been revealed this evening.
Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees identified the man as 63-year-oldRricky Baxter of South Fork Borough.
Lees says a preliminary investigation indicates that Baxter was driving in the wrong direction but officials are uncertain why.
According to the Richland Township Police Captain Rick Pollino the Richland and Adams Township Police Departments were dispatched to a vehicle traveling South in the Northbound lane of Route 219 at the St. Michaels exit around 7:45 p-m wednesday evening
And just a few minutes later around 7:51 pm Richland Township Police reported a head on collision in the Southbound lanes
“I got there late, so I actually wasn’t there in the beginning.”
This is Wes Meyers, the Fire Chief from the Richland Township Fire Department. He says when he arrived at the scene there was…
“Debris scattered everywhere. there was already one transported to the hospital. it was a head on collision, so basically two vehicles hit head on. One vehicle probably went about 20 feet off to the other side of the road. the other vehicle was in the middle of the roadway.”
Pollino says the 63-year-old man was driving a 2014 Ford Focus traveling North in the Southbound lanes of 219 when he collided with a 23-year-old Mineral Point man driving a 2008 Pontiac G6.
“We thought we had entrapment in one vehicle, which actually that’s where the fatality ended up being at. So, as they cut the door off of him, got E.M.S into him; when E.M.S. got to him they said that it was too late.”
Pollino also says the 63-year-old man died at the scene of the crash and the 23-year-old man remains in the hospital with serious injuries.
“We actually had to shut down the northbound lane as well, only because the amount of traffic that was on the southbound lane until we got all the traffic diverted and crossed over.”