Girl, 2, Killed In Parkway North Crash, 3 Others Injured
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A 2-year-old girl has died after a crash on the Parkway North early Thursday morning.
The northbound lanes of the Parkway North were closed between McKnight Road and Perrysville Avenue after the two-vehicle crash around 1 a.m.
An emergency official said four victims were taken to Allegheny General Hospital, where 2-year-old Saryiah Jefferson later died.
According to police, the girl was not wearing a seatbelt and was not in a car seat.
The 24-year-old driver, identified as Taylor Jefferson, and a 22-year-old passenger, identified as the little girl's father Tyrek Jefferson, were also not wearing seatbelts.
State police said the vehicle stopped in the left lane, and the driver started driving in reverse, in the wrong direction. Their car was hit by another car, driven by 21-year-old Daniel White, traveling in the northbound lanes.
Police don't know why the first car stopped on the interstate or why the driver was going in the wrong direction.
"We speculate that he passed the exit and wanted to get off at the exit," Trooper Melinda Bonderanka, of State Police, said.
Police are looking into Taylor Jefferson's condition at the time of the accident.
"It is routine when you have a fatality that operator number one's blood is taken," Trooper Bonderanka said.
Saryiah's mother told our news partners at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that she was at work at the time of the accident and has no idea where the child and her father had gone or were coming from at 12:55 a.m.
The northbound lanes between the McKnight Road/Evergreen Road exit and the Perrysville Avenue exit were closed hours after the crash. They reopened around 5 a.m.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating.
Taylor Jefferson is currently awaiting trial on drug and weapons charged from a late April arrest. Whether he'll face charges related to the accident or Saryiah's death is still to be determined.
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