A 16-year-old Pittsburgh girl was airlifted by medical helicopter to an area hospital after being struck by a vehicle Friday afternoon on Hite Road in Harmar.
The incident was reported shortly before 4 p.m. at the southbound off-ramp of Route 28 at Hite Road.
Harmar Township Police Chief Jason Domaratz. said witnesses reported the girl was an occupant in a car that had run out of gas. She was struck while crossing Hite Road toward an uninvolved motorist who was offering assistance. The chief said the girl suffered a cut on her head. Her name was not available.
No other injuries were reported, according to Domaratz.
The girl was struck in a construction zone, where the bridge carrying Hite Road over Route 28 is being replaced, the chief said. The incident remains under investigation.
“Usually, it’s a four-lane intersection. But two of the lanes are closed, so visibility is different,” according to Kristen McIntire, a Brackenridge motorist who had earlier stopped to help the stranded girl and a female companion.
“I pulled alongside them to see if they were OK, and I told them to stay there,” McIntire said.
She said she left the scene to get gas for the pair but had to drive to a convenience store in Cheswick after finding that pumps weren’t working at gas stations in Harmar and Springdale because of a power outage.
By the time she returned, the girl had been struck, McIntire said. She said she was able to give the gas to the remaining occupant of the car and to an aunt of the victim so they could drive to the hospital.
McIntire, who is a counselor for Pittsburgh Public Schools, said she was anxious to learn the fate of the girl. “They could have been my students.”
Harmar: Vehicle/pedestrian collision - Route 28 SB Offramp at Hite Rd; Responders on scene with road closures in the vicinity.
— Allegheny County (@Allegheny_Co) August 14, 2020
Domaratz said emergency crews were dealing with a downed power line on nearby Russellton Road that had sparked a brush fire shortly before the Hite Road incident. There were reports of multiple blown transformers in the area, he said.
Simultaneous line failures in the Deer Creek and Cheswick areas caused outages for 306 West Penn Power customers at about 3:15 p.m., according to First Energy spokesman Eyad Gheith. Many had power restored within 20 minutes, while the remainder were back online by 6:45 p.m., he said.
Tribune-Review reporter Natasha Lindstrom contributed to this report.
