A wrong-way driver died after a head-on crash in Murrysville Thursday morning, said Police Chief Tom Kusinsky.
Authorities aren’t sure why a 72-year-old Greensburg man was traveling east in the westbound lanes around 6:15 a.m. before slamming into another vehicle. Kusinsky said police received a call at 6:08 a.m. to check the welfare of a man who had stopped his vehicle nearby on the highway and got out of it.
The crash was reported 10 minutes later in the same area.
“We do believe that was the same individual,” he said.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the man as John Howard.
The crash, near Buena Vista Drive, shut down the highway for about two hours west of the Route 66 interchange. Four people, including Howard, were taken to AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville. The three people in the other vehicle had minor to moderate injuries, Kusinsky said. Police hope to learn more from the autopsy.
“We’re not sure what he was doing,” he said. “There’s nothing to point us in any direction yet.”
Staff writer Jack Troy contributed.
