Two pre-schoolers, Liam Bintrim and Declan McCullough, die when car goes out of control on ice park
Two children are dead after a crash caused by the icy roads brought on by sudden morning rain Wednesday.
Elisabeth McCullough car accident video screenshot
Elisabeth McCullough, age 32, was one of the many people to lose control of her car on the slick roads. McCullough only sustained minor injuries from the crash, but her 3-year-old Liam Bintrim and toddler Declan McCullough died of blunt force trauma. Declan would have been 1-year-old on Friday.
The boys were properly restrained but apparently crushed by the roof of the SUV their mother was driving after she slid off Lower Harmony Road and hit a tree about 10:30 a.m., State police Lt. Eric Hermick said.
“We believe this was a pure incident beyond her control,” Hermick said.
Despite air and road surface temperatures well above freezing, an icy rain began falling in sections of Butler County about 10 a.m. causing treacherous driving conditions that led to numerous accidents, according to a PennDOT official.
State police received 42 calls for accidents within a 15-minute time frame.
“We were monitoring the temperature very closely this morning, then all of a sudden we started getting reports from state police about icing conditions on area roadways,” said Robert Skrak, manager of PennDOT‘s District 10 office, which covers Butler County.
We sent salt trucks as fast as we could, and (the salt) quickly took care of the problem, but not before there were vehicles sliding all over the place,” Skrak said.
The conditions caused a construction truck carrying explosive materials along Route 422 in Butler Township to slide off the roadway, according to police.
The box truck was loaded with about 300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer pellets, 200 gallons of diesel fuel as well as TNT and blasting caps, which were being transported to a demolition site, said Butler Township police officer Alan Morris.
The materials were removed from the truck and the fertilizer pellets, which spilled onto the roadway, were cleaned up before the truck was pulled up from the hillside, Morris said.
The road reopened at about 3 p.m., he said. No injuries were reported.
I’m saddened to hear of such loss, may these two precious babies be accepted into God’s holy embrace. The parents being good people or not, these children did not deserve to have their lives cut so short. I feel for the loss of the young lives, not for the mother who somehow managed to walk away without injury. This strikes me as very odd, and questionable, given the condition of the vehicle post-crash.
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