NEWS: Fatalities of George Pletcher, Ernest Stauffer and Richard Coleman in 
Reading Mine Crossing Being Looked Into, 1949, of interest in Somerset County, 
Pa 

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Public Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
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Fatalities in Reading Mine Crossing Being Looked Into

  State Highway men are at present investigating the number of fatalities which 
have occurred at the Reading mine crossing on Route 53 where three men were 
killed last Thursday morning.
  George Pletcher, Ernest Stauffer, and Richard Coleman approached the crossing 
at about a quarter of six as they were driving to work on a pipeline job for the 
People's Natural Gas Company.
  There were several strikes against the three men to hasten the tragedy.  
First, it is highly probable that at the early hour when the accident occurred 
there was considerable fog.  In addition to this hazard, there is a dangerous 
curve on the hill leading to the crossing.  Also, railroad men reported that the 
crossing is used by trains only once a day.  Finally, there are no blinker signs 
to warn motorists.
  Therefore, when a B and O freight engine halted at the crossing about a mile 
from Stoystown, the ordinary painted railroad warning sign did not prevent 
Pletcher's car from crashing into the engine.  The engineer, Charles G. Pyle, 
did not notice the car approaching.
  If the car had been 30 seconds earlier, chances are that the disaster would 
have been avoided.  Crew men said that the engine had only been on the tracks 
that length of time before the collision occurred.
  However, the men were instantly killed by severe head fractures, internal 
injuries and lacerations.  The car was rammed between the locomotive and a 
tender car.  Pletcher and Stauffer were caught in the front seat.  Coleman's 
body was hurled out of the car.
  The incident has other grim aspects.  Coleman, who was not identified until 
late in the morning, had a brother who was also killed on his way to work one 
morning five years ago.  However, Leo was discovered dead in a wrecked car on 
the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the cause of this accident remains a mystery.
  Stanley Popeck, a McKeesport truck driver, luckily escaped plunging into the 
large number of spectators and cars which were assembled at the scene of last 
week's accident when his vehicle came rolling down the hill past Kimmel's Park a 
few hours after the crash.  The truck, heavily loaded with lumber, was running 
out of control.  Popeck was arrested for speeding and reckless driving by Squire 
George Riddell of Stoystown.
  Funerals of the accident victims were held this past week end.
  Nothing more definite has been heard from Senator Fred P. Hare Jr., who 
inspected the scene of the crash and declared that he and Assemblymen, Orban and 
Wagner, would arrange for putting blinker signals at the crossing.  The crossing 
is the only one maintained by the state in the county.

Meyersdale Republican, August 4, 1949