Double
Fatality
Results
from Devastating
Crash
TOWN OF EVANS --- According to eyewitnesses, a small station wagon carrying a 61-year-old man and his 84-year-old mother mysteriously crossed the centerline of Southwestern Boulevard (Route 20) near Gowans Road and collided head-on with an eastbound tractor-trailer. The accident occurred around 4pm on Friday, March 31, 2000.
The impact pushed the car backwards about 50-75 feet and caused the tractor-trailer to skid off the road and into the eastbound ditch. A 22-ton steel coil became dislodged from the flatbed trailer as a result of the collision, landing alongside the roadway but avoiding any further damage or injury.
Angola Fire Control dispatched volunteers from the Evans Center Fire Company along with Angola and Highland Hose fire companies, the Eden Emergency Squad and Rural/Metro Ambulance. First arriving Town of Evans Police Officers quickly determined the two patients to show signs of obvious death, and the scene around the car was taped off to allow further investigation.
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Firefighters check out a small diesel leak from this tractor trailer that collided head-on with a small station wagon - sending the truck into the ditch and its 22-ton load rolling |
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The driver of the tractor-trailer was not seriously injured and was transported to Lake Shore Health Care Center where he was later released.
No obvious road or weather conditions could immediately account for the driver’s actions. It was a dry, sunny day and the accident occurred on a flat stretch of road with good line of sight distance.
Using hydraulic rescue tools, Evans Center Volunteers extricated the two people after the Erie County Medical Examiner and Town of Evans Police Accident Investigation Unit completed their on-scene investigations. The car had suffered heavy damage.
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Volunteer Firefighters survey the wreckage after extricating two people from this small station wagon |
A spill response team from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation arrived to determine the severity of a diesel leak from the tractor-trailer’s saddle tank. An estimated 35 gallons had spilled but did not appear to pose significant risk to the habitat. Fire Police Units posted at Eden-Evans Center and Pontiac Roads kept Route 20 shut down for 4-1/2 hours while a crane and wreckers were used to haul the steel coil and truck away.
Media personnel from Buffalo’s three major network news
stations and the Buffalo News swarmed the scene, conducting live broadcasts and
videotaping of the on-site operations.
