McADOO - A Kelayres man was killed in a one-vehicle crash Monday evening on Tresckow Road in Banks Township.
According to state police, Andrew McAloose, 64, was driving a red Jeep Cherokee toward Tresckow when it careened off the east side of the roadway just beyond a sharp curve about a mile north of the Kline Township line. Tire tracks cut through the soil on the east shoulder of the road, marking the vehicle's course over a small embankment and into a shallow, muddy ravine where police at the scene said it appeared the vehicle rolled over several times before coming to rest on its roof.
"It looks like speed was a factor," a trooper at the scene remarked.
Carbon County Deputy Coroner Gerald Jones of East Side Borough pronounced McAloose dead at the scene at approximately 8 p.m. Police said the man was not wearing a seat belt and died of multiple traumatic injuries.
Jeff Payne, a volunteer firefighter with the McAdoo Fire Department, said he was driving from Tresckow to hang out with his friends at the firehouse in McAdoo about 6:50 p.m. when he came upon the vehicle on its roof in the ditch.
Payne pulled to the side of the road and ran to the vehicle. There were no passengers in the vehicle, just the driver, Payne said.
Payne said he called 911 to report the crash, then handed his cellphone to a woman who was driving by and stopped to ask if help was needed.
"I told her to talk to the dispatcher while I go back to the guy in the car," Payne said.
Another motorist at the scene told police he was driving toward McAdoo when the red Jeep went past him at a high rate of speed, traveling toward Tresckow.
"He said the Jeep was on two wheels around the curve," Payne said the other motorist told police.
Firefighters closed the roadway while police and emergency responders worked at the scene. Roadblocks were set up near the entrance to the McAdoo Industrial Park in Kline Township, and near the entrance to PSI Group corrugated packaging factory in Banks Township.
Emergency responders from McAdoo and Kine Township assisted state police at the scene.
An investigation into the cause of the crash continues.