Boy, 14, Injured In Elizabeth Twp. Hunting Accident
ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – A teenage boy was injured in a hunting accident early Monday morning in Elizabeth Township.
According to officials, the incident happened in the woods near the intersection of Scenery Drive and Mill Hill Road around 6 a.m.
The 14-year-old boy was rushed to Children's Hospital after accidentally being shot in the leg.
"He had the gun loaded. He was pulling it up on a rope. He was up in the tree stand. He was pulling the gun up on a rope. Whatever caused the gun to go off, I don't know. That's going to be investigated also," Regis Denne with the Pennsylvania Game Commission said.
The boy was carried out of the woods by his father, who then called 911.
"The kid was holding together pretty well – he wasn't crying – he was actually being really tough about it," Elizabeth Township Police Officer David Machesney said.
"He did manage to miss all of the major arteries and bones and it seems like he's going to make a full recovery," Officer Machesney added.
Game officials said this type of accident doesn't happen often, but it violates a major safety rule.
"One of the primary rules of gun safety and especially dealing with tree stands, you do not pull a loaded firearm into a tree stand. That's one of the primary rules that you teach these kids in a hunter's safety course," Denne said.
Game officials are interviewing the victim and his father as part of their investigation. The commission says this was the worst accident today in southwestern Pennsylvania on the first day of firearms deer hunting season.
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