State police said weather was a factor in a crash Friday that claimed the lives of 17-year-old girl from West Virginia and a 67-year-old Saltsburg man who was a passenger in the sport utility vehicle she was driving on Route 286 in Indiana County.
Authorities said Makenzie Marie Deditch, of Grafton, W. Va., and Williard F. Allshouse Jr., 67, of Saltsburg, were killed in the three-vehicle crash. The crash occurred at 5:30 p.m. along the rural, two-lane highway in Center Township, about 9 miles southwest of Indiana Borough.
Allshouse was a passenger in the Toyota RAV4 sport utility vehicle Deditch was driving, according to county Coroner Jerry Overman.
Troopers said the crash occurred when the driver of a Porsche Cayenne, David B. Wilson, 54, of Indiana, lost control on the wet highway in the westbound lane, crossed over into the eastbound lane and struck the SUV the teenager was driving. The collision caused the teenager’s vehicle to roll over onto its driver’s side before coming to a stop.
Wilson’s vehicle then continued west and struck an eastbound pickup truck driven by Elizabeth Bush, 45, of Blairsville. Bush and Wilson were both treated at Indiana Regional Medical Center for multiple injuries, police said.
Both Deditch and Allshouse were pronounced dead at the scene.
The state police accident reconstruction team was called to the scene and it remains under investigation.
