A passenger involved in a crash in Fayette County last month has died, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner.
Brian Keith Benedetto, 49, of Uniontown was pronounced dead Friday at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, a week after the Oct. 23 crash in Dunbar Township.
State police said Benedetto was a passenger in a Chevrolet Cavalier at 6:20 p.m. on Hardy Hill Road when the car veered off the road and collided with a cement embankment. The medical examiner said the car rolled over.
The driver was identified by police as Michael S. Benedetto, 27, of Connellsville. Troopers said four people witnessed the crash.
Both men were reported to have serious injuries as a result of the crash and were flown by medical helicopter to Pittsburgh hospitals. Michael Benedetto was taken to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. His condition was not available.
Brian Benedetto’s death was ruled accidental as a result of blunt force trauma to the trunk and head, according to the medical examiner.
In Pennsylvania last year, there were 125,267 vehicle crashes and 1,059 people were killed, according to a PennDOT report. The number of crash-related fatalities decreased by 11% from 2018. In the total crashes, 4,680 people were believed to have been seriously injured.
The most common type of crash is a vehicle hitting a fixed object. About 30% of crashes happened when a vehicle hit something like a tree or guiderail, resulting in 33% of the state’s fatalities in 2019, according to the report.
There were 16 fatal crashes in Fayette County in 2019 and 18 the previous year, according to PennDOT statistics.
