2 injured in second Limerick crash - LIMERICK TOWNSHIP, PA
Dirty Sanchez
Evan Brandt , ebr...@pottsmerc.com 08/23/2004
LIMERICK -- A second accident at an intersection where police say accidents
rarely happen injured two men Sunday, only 28 hours after a crash killed two
men and injured two more at the very same location.
"To have two accidents in the same spot in two days, it's really an
anomaly," Limerick police Cpl. Robert Matalavage said of the 3:55 a.m. crash
at Fruitville and Pruss Hill roads that injured two Pottstown men.
"And we've never experienced a lot of accidents there before," he said.
According to a news release from Matalavage, Jacob E. Arms IV, 18, was
driving a 1994 Ford Escort south on Fruitville Road when he lost control of
the vehicle and smashed into a utility pole.
He had to be extricated from the car by Limerick Fire Company Rescue and was
flown to Lehigh Valley Trauma Center by Medevac helicopter.
Arms is listed in critical condition.
Jason Christman, 19, was a passenger in the car and climbed out of the
Escort on his own, but he was flown nevertheless by Medevac to the
University of Pennsylvania Hospital where he was treated for his injuries,
police said.
Sunday morning's accident occurred on the heels of a similar crash that
occurred at 12:01 a.m. Saturday just a few feet away.
In that accident, Boyertown baseball star Brandon Mason, 21, and Kyle
Rusinski, 25, also of Boyertown, were killed when the 2002 Honda Civic in
which they were riding smashed into a tree.
The driver of the Civic, 25-year-old Gabriel Iannozzi of Gilbertsville, and
passenger John Dehaven Jr., 26, of Birdsboro were also injured.
Iannozzi has since been released from Lehigh Valley Hospital, a hospital
spokesperson said Sunday afternoon. Dehaven's condition could not be
determined by press time.
A series of uncanny coincidences accompanied the first crash. Rusinski was
killed on what would have been his brother Jasen's 26th birthday, a
milestone never reached because Jasen was killed in a crash on Dec. 30,
2000, on his way home to Florida.
The crash happened two days shy of the two-year anniversary of a crash in
which Mason's older brother Steven was a passenger. Another Boyertown
baseball star, Jason Benyo, was killed in that crash.
All this has occurred while the team both players played for, Boyertown's
American Legion Bears, compete in Oregon for the American Legion World
Series.
In recognition of the connection, the Mason family has suggested that rather
than send flowers to Mason's funeral Wednesday, memorial contributions
should be made to the Jason M. Benyo & Brandon S. Mason Memorial Scholarship
Fund for an annual presentation to a Boyertown American Legion baseball
player.
Apparently these were not to be the last of the coincidences. Matalavage
said not only were both cars driving south of Fruitville Road when they
crashed, but the pole the Escort hit Sunday is "directly across the street"
from the tree hit by the Civic one day earlier.
"Of course it's a tragedy any time you get a fatality in an accident. It's
horrible," said Matalavage. "But this is just really kind of unbelievable."
ŠThe Mercury 2004