Cole Wilson

WORTH TWP — A Franklin Township teenager died of injuries in a two-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon in northern Butler County, authorities said. The crash came just one day after he graduated high school from Portersville Christian School.

Cole J. Wilson, 18, was pronounced dead at 5:22 p.m. at Grove City Medical Center, according to state police and Mercer County Chief Deputy Coroner Robert Snyder.

The death was made even more tragic since Wilson was just six months old when his father, Scott Wilson, a Unionville firefighter/paramedic, drowned in 2001 while attempting to recover the body of a kayaker from the swift waters of Slippery Rock Creek.

Police are investigating the vehicle wreck that occurred about 4:10 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Route 108 and the Interstate 79 exit ramp in Worth Township.

Police said Wilson had been northbound on I-79 and was leaving the highway at Exit 105. According to police, he failed to stop at the stop sign and his Ford Fusion was struck on the driver's side by a Subaru Forester traveling west on Route 108.

Wilson was unresponsive when emergency crews arrived, said Ryan Hanchosky, chief of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team. Fire crews had to cut off the roof of the car to get him out.

Slippery Rock EMS took him to the medical center, which is a trauma center, but he never regained consciousness. An emergency room physician pronounced Wilson dead of blunt force trauma to the chest, Snyder said.

No autopsy was conducted but results of standard toxicology tests are pending.

The other driver, Robert Richardson, 34, of Bessemer, Lawrence County, suffered apparent minor injuries. Portersville EMS took him to Butler Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Assisting Slippery Rock firefighters were the Pine Township Engine Company in Mercer County and the Scott Township Volunteer Fire Department in Lawrence County.

Both vehicles had to be towed. The crash closed the intersection for about two hours.

Thompson-Miller Funeral Home in Butler is handling funeral arrangements, which were still incomplete Monday.

The funeral home also handled the arrangements for Scott Wilson.

The elder Wilson was 25 when he and fellow Unionville firefighter Tony Murdick, also 25, drowned April 8, 2001, in McConnells Mill State Park in Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County.

The two firefighters, both members of the department's dive team, perished as they tried to recover the body of a 23-year-old man who died while kayaking.

Cole Wilson just two months ago attended a public ceremony to mark the dedication of a large stone monument at the recently rebuilt Harris Bridge, near the site of the drowning.

Murdick's son, Talan, also attended. He was 1-year-old when his father died.

“Honestly, it's incredible,” Cole Wilson said at the April 7 ceremony. “Even though the old bridge was taken down and rebuilt, they are still putting something back for a permanent reminder of what happened.”