By Margaret Harding

Published: Friday, January 18, 2013, 11:48 a.m.
Updated: Saturday, January 19, 2013

The driver of a car involved in a “horrific” crash Downtown Friday morning might have been having a medical issue, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Eric Holmes said.

An autopsy is scheduled Saturday on Donald Fox, 80, of Banksville, a spokesman for the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said.

Fox was heading inbound on the Parkway and possibly hit another vehicle before crashing into a pole in a median near the Gateway T station on Liberty Avenue, Holmes said.

“It looks like a horrific accident,” he said.

Witnesses told police the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed around 10:40 a.m., Holmes said. “You can tell it was quite an impact,” he said.

Fox was thrown from the vehicle, which was mangled beyond recognition and left pushed against the pole. He was taken to UPMC Mercy, Uptown, and died at 11:08 a.m., the medical examiner's spokesman said.

No one else was hurt.

Dave Fish and Eric Damon said they were working on the 19th floor of the Gateway 4 building when they looked out the window and saw the driver lying motionless in the street.

“I'm just shocked,” said Damon, 34, of Lower Burrell. “I never saw that before.”

Liberty Avenue was closed near Stanwix Street until police completed their crash site investigation.

Margaret Harding is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-8519 or mharding@tribweb.com. Staff writer Michael Hasch contributed to this report.

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