Tractor-Trailer Loses Load, Steel Coil Slams Into Fayette City Home
FAYETTE CITY (KDKA) – Steel coils fell off a tractor-trailer and one slammed into a Fayette County home Wednesday morning.
According to emergency dispatchers, the incident happened in the 900 block of Fayette City Boulevard in Fayette City around 11 a.m.
For reasons unknown, the tractor-trailer lost its load of three steel coils. They weigh approximately 14,000 to 16,000 lbs. each.
Twenty-four tons of steel rolled down the street, and there wasn't a thing anyone could do to stop it.
"I said, 'Oh my god, someone's going to get killed,'" neighbor Michael Hatalowich said. "It just happened, like, in slow motion. It scared me."
Police say speed was not a factor. The driver was going fairly slow.
"The truck was coming down," Hatalowich said. "He claims that a car came up and went into his lane. When he hit his brakes, the load snapped, and everything just went rolling down the road."
Two of the coils rolled into the road, snapping a utility pole in half. The third went barreling toward a house. Fortunately, it struck a parked car first.
"The coil hit the car, then bounced off the car and went into the house, onto the front porch of the residence," Washington Twp. Police Dept. Chief Carl Fronzaglio said. "Thank God it hit the car first or it would have went through the home. There were residents inside the house."
A neighbor saw it happen and ran to check on the family inside.
"I knocked on the door, told my wife to call 911," Hatalowich said. "I ran to this house to make sure it didn't go through the house, and everything just unfolded."
No one was hurt.
The truck is now impounded and will be inspected to see if there were equipment violations.
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