SOUTH MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — A 44-year-old West Virginia truck driver with nearly 20 years of experience is sharing dashcam footage of a crash that killed an 87-year-old woman who pulled out of a driveway directly in front of his semi on a dark Pennsylvania road — not to defend himself, since he was never charged, but because he wants her family to understand what happened and because the crash has broken him.
“If there was something I could do, I would have done it,” the driver told PennLive. “Every time I look up, I see the damn crash.”
The crash happened just before 9:45 p.m. on the 1500 block of Holly Pike in South Middleton Township, Cumberland County. The driver had picked up a load about 20 minutes earlier and was heading north on Holly Pike when headlights suddenly appeared from a driveway on his right. Shirlene M. Kutz, 87, of Mount Holly Springs, was attempting a left turn onto Holly Pike out of the driveway in her Toyota Corolla when she crossed directly into the path of the northbound tractor-trailer. The truck struck the Corolla on the driver’s side. Police said Kutz’s view of the approaching truck may have been obscured by a row of trees on her side of the road.
The dashcam footage shows the truck traveling at approximately 48 mph in a 45 mph zone at the moment of impact. The driver said there was nothing he could do. Kutz was pulled from the Toyota and transported to UPMC Carlisle, where she died from her injuries. Her family has been notified. The driver suffered a sprained wrist, a fractured knee, injuries to his back and spine, and injuries to his fingers. He broke down in tears at the hospital while waiting to hear her condition and was heartbroken when he learned she had not survived.
State police did not charge the driver. He chose to share the footage and speak publicly on his own, hoping it would help the public and the Kutz family better understand the circumstances.
“That’s somebody’s grandma, somebody’s sister, somebody’s mom,” he said. “That’s a human life.”
Now, two decades into his trucking career, the driver says this crash has changed everything. He is scared to drive and says he may never get back behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer.
Holly Pike was closed for approximately three hours after the crash while police investigated.
Interviews courtesy of PennLive.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
