Published: March 23, 2008 11:33 pm      

Speed played role in crash, police say

NANTY GLO — Excessive speed is believed to have played a role in Saturday’s horrific crash into a tree that claimed the life of two juniors at Blacklick Valley Junior/ Senior High School, state police said.

More details emerged Sunday as to the circumstances surrounding the single-vehicle wreck that claimed the lives of the driver, Tiana Rose of Nanty Glo, 16, and rear-seat passenger Nicholas Maniccia, 16, of Twin Rocks. 

Front-seat passenger Brooke Litzinger, 16, of Nanty Glo and Jeremy Turous, 16, of Vintondale, both high school students, were injured.

Litzinger was flung 90 feet through the windshield, yet remained conscious. She was able to call 911, state police in Ebensburg said.

Turous remained in an Altoona hospital Sunday where, police said, he was taken for a broken leg and arm.

The hospital would release no information on his condition.

While grieving along with the entire town over the loss of two young people, Litzinger’s family was able to offer up a debt of gratitude for her own condition.

“Brooke is in a lot of pain. Her ankle was broken in two places,” said her grandmother, Dorothy Litzinger, from the Nanty Glo home.

“But we’re thanking the Lord for it alright; the Lord was good to her,” she said.

Litzinger said that a neck brace that Brooke had been wearing has been removed. She remains on a sedative drip and so comes in and out of consciousness, the grandmother said.

“All four of them were friends, ”Litzinger said. “It was my understanding that they were going to pick up another friend and go to the mall. They never made it, apparently.”

Brooke is being treated at Memorial Medical Center.

The district, meanwhile, huddles in sadness. Administrators of Blacklick Valley Junior/Senior High School are meeting this morning to set up grief counseling, possibly by this afternoon.

Principal Michael McDermott on Sunday encouraged those who feel they might need grief services to call the school this morning at 749-9213, ext. 200. Messages will be checked regularly, he said.

“Everybody is impacted by the loss in such a small school district,” he said. “It’s going to impact every child in the school. All of our children know them. Our first and primary concern is for the families.”

School Superintendent Donald Thomas echoed those sentiments.

“It is a real tragedy,” he said.

“It will touch everybody in the district: Our district is a family in itself.”

Regular classes will resume Tuesday following the Easter break.

State police said the Chevy Cavalier in which the teens were riding was on Snake Road near Reed Hall Road when the driver lost control.

The car crossed into the oncoming lane, hit an embankment, crossed the road again, then flipped and crashed while airborne into a tree.

Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said the accident was reported at 2:48 p.m. Saturday.