PITTSBURGH — The investigation into the crash from the Parkway East into the Monongahela River on Thursday evening is still in the early stages, but Pennsylvania State Police and divers who responded to the rescue effort explained more about what happened on Friday.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner announced Jacinta Stevens, 31, of Pittsburgh’s West End, was killed after she somehow lost control of her Ford Explorer in the left eastbound lane of the Parkway East Thursday night.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> Woman, 31, dies after vehicle plunges into icy Mon River from the Parkway East
Troopers said she crossed from the left lane into the right lane, then crashed over the barrier and into the icy Monongahela River.
“That Explorer rides that snow embankment for a good bit, and then goes over,” said Trooper Rocco Gagliardi of the Pennsylvania State Police. “We have to work on what happened in that left lane of travel to cause that kind of path.”
State Police said they received very few 911 calls about the crash. The first call came from someone who was under the highway on 2nd Avenue.
“They witnessed the vehicle go into the river. They didn’t have any cell phone or service on them, so they were trying to get to Second Avenue to flag down someone to call into 911,” Gagliardi said. “That took a couple of extra minutes there due to the fact that that was pretty much our only call for this crash.”
There was nearly four to five inches of ice on the Monongahela River Thursday night.
PHOTOS: Divers perform rescue efforts after reports of vehicle submerged in Mon River
Eric Capets, a Crew Chief with Pittsburgh River Rescue, was one of the six divers who went into the river. He went in on the third dive.
“I went inside the vehicle, checked the back seat, front seat, then we call a 360 where I went around the vehicle, then I did a sweep out of a perimeter about 10 feet away from the vehicle, then I did a downstream sweep as well,” Capets explained.
Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek asked Capets about the condition of the car.
“It was pretty beat up, Capets said. “I know that’s under investigation and some of those details I can’t talk about but you can imagine, it plunged a pretty good distance, and when you hit the ice, it will crumple a car.”
Even though the ice was thick on the river, and the water was freezing, he said the conditions were ideal for a rescue.
“In the wintertime the visibility is excellent,” Capets said. “When I say excellent, it’s about four to five feet because there’s no algae bloom. The current was very low, very little current under the ice.”
Capets said divers with Pittsburgh River Rescue train for this kind of rescue operation constantly. In fact, there was already a training scheduled for ice dives on the river coming up next month.
“We train like we fight,” Capets said. “You’ve probably heard that term. So when we train, we push it to the limits safely, but we’re ready for this.”
As part of the investigation, troopers said they’re looking at everything from potential car problems, the ice and snow on the Parkway East, to any potential alcohol being involved. While there is currently no evidence of alcohol, troopers said it is standard procedure in any fatal crash to help find out how and why a crash happened. Crews say they are getting ready to remove the car from the Monongahela River. There’s no word yet on when that extraction will happen.
Troopers are looking at cameras in the area as part of their investigation. They are asking for anyone who may have seen the crash, or may have been driving on the Parkway East on Thursday and are able to talk to them about road conditions to give them a call.
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