Man struck and killed by new ladder truck on its way from factory
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The Pocono Record has an unusual story by Andrew Scott about a man running into traffic on Route 33 in Saylorsburg, PA after a car crash on Thursday and being struck by a ladder truck heading for New Jersey from the factory. Here are excerpts:
A man was driving north at about 11:30 a.m. when his car sped off the east side of the road, crashing down onto the Sorrenti’s Cherry Valley Vineyards & Winery property off Lower Cherry Valley Road.
Andrea Long, who lives near Stockertown, was working in the winery office when she heard the crash.
“I saw him pulling himself out of the car with his hands,” Long said. “When he got to his feet, he was in a daze, and he had blood on the back of his head. I tried to help him, but he kept flagging me away and moving away from me.
“I didn’t want him to panic, so I stayed a little distance back from him,” she said.
Long said the man then struggled up an embankment back toward the highway.
“I tried to get him to stop, but he just kept moving,” she said. “When he got to the top, he looked into traffic and then just lunged over the guardrail.”
The man was hit and killed by a southbound firetruck.
The truck was recently purchased by the Passaic, N.J., Fire Department and was on its way to New Jersey from a manufacturer in Wisconsin, said Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacoste. The truck was being driven by a third-party vendor, Trentacoste said.
“He was on a mission,” Long said. “He was either trying to get away or he wanted to kill himself.”
