MINERSVILLE - A borough woman involved in a crash Wednesday on Seltzer Road was still in critical condition Thursday.
While Matt Bevan was one of the first people who stopped at the scene to help extricate the woman driver and two children from the smoking vehicle, the other man was identified Thursday as Mark Redenis, Seltzer.
According to Trooper Peter Mohn from the Schuylkill Haven state police station, the crash occurred as Ashley N. Trate, 22, was driving a Suzuki Forenza with two young girls, ages 1 and 2 in car seats, in the back seat west on Seltzer Road and crossed over the oncoming lane and struck a rock embankment off the eastbound shoulder.
The vehicle then traveled back into the lane, crossed over the westbound lane and came to a stop in the westbound lane of Seltzer Road near Gallo Road.
Trate and the children were injured, Mohn said, adding that he didn't know the severity of the injuries.
Trate was transported to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, for treatment. She remained in critical condition Thursday.
"I was just driving down on the road there, and I came across this car and it was smashed in," Redenis said. "I thought it was a head-on collision."
Redenis said that he and Bevan looked in the vehicle and saw Trate bleeding from the nose with a bruise on her head.
He grabbed one of the children and ran up the hill, then said Bevan yelled to him that there was another child in the car, so he passed the child off to a woman at the scene who had called 911 and went to get the other.
Since they couldn't get the seat belt open, he said Bevan handed him a pocket knife, which they used to cut it and get the other child out.
The men wanted to try to get all the passengers out quickly since the front of the car was smoking and starting to catch on fire, Bevan, an employee of The Republican-Herald, said Wednesday.
With the front of the car smashed, they couldn't get the woman out, but about that time, rescue workers arrived.
Minersville police Chief Michael Combs said Wednesday that borough police maintained the scene until state police arrived.
He also said that Trate was semiconscious when taken out of her vehicle, but she was able to talk to state police.
Once Minersville police arrived, Bevan said, Patrolman Joseph Cavanaugh extinguished the fire.
When the fire departments arrived, rescue personnel were able to get Trate out of the vehicle using the Jaws of Life.
The Suzuki was the only vehicle involved in the crash.