2 women rescued from car flipped over hillside near Keystone State Park

Firefighters on Thursday rescued two women headed to Keystone State Park in Derry Township after their car flipped over a guide rail and teetered on a steep hillside.

Neither of the young women were believed to have been seriously injured after the 9:21 a.m. accident on Keystone Park Road, but at least one was taken by ambulance to a local hospital as a precaution, according to firefighters at the scene.

“It was a pretty complicated rescue because the hillside is so steep. We first had to set up struts to secure the vehicle, then we had to cut off the roof in order to extricate them,” said Bradenville Assistant Volunteer Fire Chief Nick Piantine.

Both women were carried about 25 yards up the hillside by firefighters in Stokes baskets to be examined by Mutual Aid paramedics, firefighters said.

Piantine said the women used an in-vehicle security device to notify authorities about the accident along the rural, winding road just east of the state park.

Because the car did so little damage to the guide rail before it flipped over on to the hillside, out of sight of motorists on the road, Piantine said rescuers responding to the accident initially passed the wreckage. He said the victims used cell phones to help responders find the crashed vehicle.

In addition to Bradenville, firefighters from Crabtree and New Alexandria responded.

State police at Kiski were investigating, but an accident report was not available.