Crash kills woman, 27, overnight
CENTER TWP — A 27-year-old Lyndora woman died in a one-car crash this morning on Sunset Drive in Center Township, state police said.
Authorities did not release her name, pending notification of next of kin.
Police said they don't know when the crash happened and acknowledged the badly damaged four-door Suzuki Forenza was not discovered until possibly hours after the wreck.
It appeared the car was southbound when it went off the west side of the road near Shanahan Road and struck a “For Sale” sign in Babette Stewart's front yard before hitting and shearing off a utility pole.
The car ended up in bushes in the yard of a neighboring home.
The wreck could have occurred between 2 and 2:30 a.m., when several homeowners reported hearing a loud noise. But the neighbors did not call authorities, believing the noise was from an overnight thunderstorm.
“It was thundering, and I heard this really loud noise,” said Jocelyn Richardson, who lives across the street from the crash. “I thought it was the storm.”
She went back to sleep and did not learn what happened until about 6:10 a.m.
Stewart was sleeping about 2:30 a.m. when she too thought she heard something outside. She got up and looked out the window but didn't see anything in the darkness.
She returned to bed and was up again at 5:45 a.m. when her alarm went off. This time when she looked outside she saw the damage in her yard, including her broken “For Sale” sign and the severed utility pole.
She went outside to inspect.
“I shined my flashlight, and I could see the (victim's) car,” Stewart said, “and went to the end of the driveway.”
That's when she noticed the downed electric lines from the broken pole that she feared could be live wires. She turned back and notified 911.
Stewart said a first responder initially told her that no one was in the car. But soon after she assumed someone had died when she saw emergency crews drape a blanket or sheet over the vehicle.
Chief Nathan Wulff of the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department said crews had to remove both driver's side doors and the center post to remove the woman's body.
The car's airbags deployed but it did not appear the woman was wearing a seat belt. Butler County Coroner William Young III said an autopsy was not expected to be done, but a final decision had not been made.
He said there was no sign that alcohol or drugs were involved.
The deadly wreck prompted several neighbors to recall another fatality that happened nearly 10 years ago not far from the same crash site.
That is when a Center Township woman was killed in the one-car wreck Sept. 7, 2006. She was a passenger in the car.
