Worker Pinned After Crash At White Oak Car Wash
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WHITE OAK (KDKA) -- Two people were hurt, one seriously, after an accident at a car wash in White Oak on Monday afternoon.
The crash happened at the Double Car Wash located on O'Neill Boulevard.
Monday seemed like a perfect day for a car wash in Pittsburgh, blue skies and very few clouds. But the beauty of the day turned into chaos when a jeep that had just been washed slammed into two cars that were getting dried, pinning a worker's head against the wall.
"I heard him run around the corner, yelling, 'Somebody come, somebody got hurt, somebody got hit by a car, come and help,'" said Robert Gindele, a witness.
Kristen Popp owns the jeep and saw her car moving at about 25 miles per hour. An unnamed employee was behind the wheel when the vehicle hit the cars in the drying area.
"I asked the boy what happened 'cause he was driving my car," said Popp. "I said, 'What happened?' And he just said, 'It wouldn't stop.' My jeep's a brand new '17, so I don't see that being the case."
Eyewitnesses say the crash happened in a matter of seconds. But getting that trapped worker from in between the wall and the white BMW was a challenge.
"He was pinned right between the column and the BMW passenger door, and we just tried to get him out, and we couldn't. And then my jeep was still running, no one turned it off, so it felt like it kept pinning him more and more," said Popp. "It was just his head."
Witnesses say it was the sheer will of passers-by and emergency responders that got that cars moved away from the wall to free the worker.
"I've never seen anything like it. And, a matter of a second, it happened, we were all just sitting there," Popp said.
White Oak and McKeesport Police are investigating, but so far, officials have not said what caused the accident to happen.
The worker was taken by medical helicopter to the hospital in serious condition.
A second person was also reportedly injured, but there's no word on what injuries they sustained or what condition they are in.
