Police investigate the fatal accident that took place at about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday on Slippery Rock Road. Passenger Tanya Tyson, 26, of Butler, was pronounced dead at the scene.

SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — A 26-year-old woman was killed and a man seriously injured late Tuesday night when their kit car smashed into a tree along Slippery Rock Road, authorities said.

Tanya Tyson of Butler, a passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash about 9:15 p.m. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Aaron Burd, 39, of Butler was flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital. His condition was not available this morning but a state police report described his injuries as “severe.”

Police said both occupants were thrown from the vehicle. Neither was wearing a seat belt.

Police said the pair was traveling north in the 600 block of Slippery Rock Road when Burd lost control of the kit car copy of a Ford Roadster.

The vehicle went off the west side of the road and struck a tree before overturning, ejecting Tyson and Burd, and breaking apart.

“There wasn't much left of it,” Chief Ken Taggart of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company said of the car.

Tyson ended up underneath the vehicle and Burd landed about 20 feet away. Burd was conscious and talking when emergency crews found him, Taggart said.

Slippery Rock Ambulance tended to Burd before a Life Flight helicopter landed at a nearby football practice field at Kiester and Harmony roads and flew him to Allegheny General Hospital

The road was closed for several hours so police could conduct an accident reconstruction investigation.