By Jim Smith

Butler Eagle Staff Writer

PENN TWP — A felony arrest warrant was issued this week for a suspended and uninsured driver accused of a hit-and-run crash that sheared off a gas meter and ruptured the line.

The wreck earlier this month sent gas spewing into the air and caused a “hazardous condition” for motorists and homeowners on Dinnerbell Road in Penn Township, police said.

Township police on Wednesday charged Chad E. Vogel, 26, of Butler with risking a catastrophe, a felony, and reckless endangerment and hit-and-run, both misdemeanors. He also was cited for eight traffic violations.

Vogel is suspected of multiple hit-and-run crashes minutes apart Feb. 2, according to court documents.

The first of the victims called 911 to report that he was southbound on Route 8 in Penn Township about 7:30 p.m. when a small pickup truck pulled out of a convenience store and hit his car.

The caller said he pulled over to exchange information with the other driver, who took off instead. The driver of the car immediately began to follow the truck, which was “all over the roadway,” a police affidavit said.

The pickup driver, later identified as Vogel, turned onto Old Route 8 and ran a stop sign at the intersection of Dinnerbell Road.

Vogel eventually crashed again, this time at a yard in the 100 block of Dinnerbell Road. Police said his truck hit and sheared off a gas meter.

The defendant moments later got out of the truck and reportedly walked away from the wreck.

Penn Township Patrolman Cheryl Cranmer eventually arrived. She said that as she traveled near the crash scene, with the patrol car’s windows up, she could smell “a strong odor” of natural gas.

In the yard she spotted tire marks that showed where Vogel’s pickup had struck the gas meter, which was laying in the middle of the lawn.

“Natural gas was being expelled directly into the air from a gas line” about 10 feet from the road, Cranmer said in her affidavit.

The leak, she noted, caused an immediate danger to those living or traveling nearby.

Peoples TWP was notified and a crew quickly capped the ruptured gas meter.