Police identify 2 drivers killed in head-on crash in Butler County
State police have released the names of two drivers killed in a Butler County head-on crash Wednesday morning.
Hayden Ernest, 19, was driving northbound on Oneida Valley Road in Oakland Township around 6:15 a.m. when he crossed into oncoming traffic and crashed head-on into a car driven by Jacqueline Rock, 32, police said.
A third car, driven by John Relihan, 24, then hit Ernest’s car, police said.
Both drivers in the head-on crash, Ernest and Rock, died following the accident, police said. Their home addresses were not available Thursday.
Ernest’s passengers — Kimberly Berry, 41, and a 5-year-old boy whose name was not released — suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, police said. Berry and the child were taken to Pittsburgh-area hospitals.
Relihan, the driver of the third vehicle, was not injured, police said. Neither Rock or Relihan were traveling with passengers.
The crash was the second Wednesday morning on Oneida Valley Road in Oakland Township.
Around 1:50 a.m., four people were hospitalized when a woman drove her SUV into oncoming traffic and overturned the vehicle, causing a second driver to swerve into an embankment to avoid her, police said.
Police said conditions were clear Wednesday morning on the roadway, which has a posted 45-mph speed limit.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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