Allen K. Black, 75, and Susan C. Black, 76, of Huntingdon, were killed Tuesday night when their Toyota Tacoma slammed into the trailer of a disabled Freightliner that was sitting across both lanes of Croghan Pike in Shirley Township. The tractor-trailer had become disabled on the roadway, and reports said no flares or emergency signals had been set up to warn approaching drivers.
According to altoonamirror.com, the Blacks were traveling in the northbound lane when their pickup hit the trailer at full highway speed at around 10:26 p.m. Tuesday. wtaj.com, meanwhile, reported the crash happened around 10:30 p.m. that same night on Croghan Pike. Either way, the timeline points to the same deadly stretch of road in Shirley Township on the night of Oct. 13.
As reported by WJAC, investigators say Allen and Susan Black were traveling northbound along Croghan Pike when they struck the trailer of the disabled big rig. The outlet's report indicates the couple was pronounced dead shortly after the crash. The driver of the Freightliner was not injured, per the same account from altoonamirror.com.
Trailer Blocked Both Lanes, Reports Say
The Freightliner had become disabled on Croghan Pike and was positioned across both the north- and southbound lanes, leaving drivers with little room to react, according to altoonamirror.com's reporting. A full crash investigation remains ongoing, the station notes, and no additional details about what caused the truck to become disabled have been released.
The lack of warning devices is a detail investigators are likely to scrutinize closely. Under Pennsylvania law, a disabled vehicle is required to display at least two warning markings — such as hazard lamps, caution signs, another traffic-control device, or road flares — according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The statute also spells out how approaching drivers are supposed to respond: motorists must move into a nonadjacent lane when possible, or otherwise slow to no more than 20 miles per hour below the posted speed limit while traveling at a reasonable speed.
What Comes Next
The same statute makes violating the disabled-vehicle passing rule a summary offense, carrying fines of up to $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second and $2,000 for a third or subsequent offense. If a violation causes a death, the law allows for a fine of up to $10,000 in addition to other penalties, per the Pennsylvania General Assembly. It has not been established whether any provision of that law was violated in Tuesday night's crash, and no charges have been reported.
Crashes involving disabled trucks blocking travel lanes aren't unique to Huntingdon County. In a separate incident, two people were killed after a van crashed into a disabled Amazon tractor-trailer along Interstate 81 in Dauphin County, according to Pennsylvania State Police as reported by Daily Voice. For now, the investigation into what happened on Croghan Pike continues, and no further information about the circumstances has been released.
