A Pittsburgh woman is dead after her vehicle went off the Parkway East and into the Monongahela River on Thursday afternoon.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified her as Jacinta Stevens, 31, of Pittsburgh’s West End.
Stevens’ car landed in the river in the 900 block of Second Avenue, between the 10th Street and Birmingham bridges in Pittsburgh, shortly before 4:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh EMS Chief Amera Gilchrist said divers pulled Stevens from the driver’s seat and used a basket to pull her out of the water. They resuscitated her at the scene, and she was transported to UPMC Presbyterian in critical condition, Gilchrist said.
Stevens lost control of her car and went over a concrete barrier on the right side of the road before the vehicle came to rest in the Mon, according to a state police crash synopsis. It’s still unclear how the vehicle surmounted the barrier.
State police listed the car as a 2013 Ford Explorer.
Divers later entered the water again.
“They were able to confirm that there was not a second car in the water, and that there were no other victims located,” Gilchrist said.
There were six divers at the scene. Only three entered the water, Gilchrist said.
She said only one diver entered the water at a time while one monitored them from above because of the freezing temperatures. They were limited to a certain time in the water before risking hypothermia.
“A couple of them had to get out (of the water) and get rehabbed,” Gilchrist said.
All divers were out of the water and cleanup began at the scene about 7 p.m.
Pittsburgh police and state police responded. Gilchrist said state police will be taking over the investigation.
The state police report said the car will be recovered from the river at a later date because of freezing temperatures.
It happened before
According to published reports at the time, David Tuma, author and electrical engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, died in a similar incident in January 1984.
Tuma, 44, was driving eastbound on the Parkway East when his Volkswagen Rabbit skidded on ice and crashed over two traffic barriers. The car cruised down a 50-foot embankment, hit a tree and then slid into the Mon.
Despite the efforts of witnesses on scene, Tuma was unable to be pulled from his car.
Each year, Carnegie Mellon names a recipient of the David Tuma Undergraduate Project Award, which honors the electrical and computer engineering student with the most outstanding laboratory project of the year.
