as I approached the old West End Circle I come across a horrible accident . 5 vehicles all over the place for 100 yards . I stop put my emergency beacon on top of my truck and put out flares to slow traffic I start checking most involved are OK just shook-en up . How ever a middle aged man in a older blue Cadillac was in terrible shape he hit the steering wheel and had chest injury's and was bleeding from some where. There was nothing we could do other than comfort him and keep him from going into shock I called his father for him and told him what happened and for him to calm down safely go AGH Hospital or have some one drive him, where medics would most likely take his son and expect a follow up call from them and have his cell phone handy that 911 was called and medics would be there shortly the medic station is 1 minute from here.
Well it was several minutes no medics no police or fire what the hell is going on. Then we here a medic who we try to flag down and they go over the west end bridge instead. Finally several more minutes and the First responders from the fire dept arrive from there station 5 miles away and with in another 2 minutes the medics and police start arriving as is normal the Allegheny county 911 dispatchers in particular the ones who dispatch for city of Pittsburgh screwed up the call and sent the forces to the wrong end of the bridge to the north side instead of west end . I had this happen in 80's when we tried to perform and rescue a vet who collapsed during a parade in front of the Mt Oliver American legion city dispatcher sent medics to carrick VFW The vet died . When I fell and crushed my heal medics where delayed arriving and had been told I had just fallen down the steps not that the steps collapsed and rescue was needed. Yes Allegheny County 911 screws up constantly and people have died and nothing is ever done to the dispatchers because there union workers.
They are absolutely the worst dispatchers to deal with you can not understand them on radio when they dispatch in some cases and they screw up where to send help .While other times they have been excellent depends who you get a dedicated worker or some one just sitting behind a phone.
I call 911 several times a month in my travels and deal with many dispatch sites and never experince the problems I do at Allegheny County's dispatch .
But thats the least of problems this particular section of Saw Mill Run blvd. is a death stretch.
they redesigned the west end circle couple years back to reduce wrecks and move traffic faster but it has not and in some cases the wrecks are even more spectacular and horrifying like I came upon .
One of the big problems when you come north on Saw Mill Run you use to make a left turn to get to North 51 and Mckeesrocks they eliminated that left turn and now drivers get confused .
All drivers now must turn right and go around and if you come up the ramp from East Carson all these vehicles now merge and it is too easy to get in the wrong lane and have cars coming right at you. This is what I think happened here driver got in wrong lane and tried to turn at last minute. and started the chain reaction . Penndots engineers need to take another look at there solution and re-tune it. They need a big sign on north 51 before circle saying " All Turns Must exit here " like they have on other roads
and they need to correct the problem with West Carson where drivers come up the ramp to the circle at high speed then can not stop in time and they need to better mark the lanes so you do not when making left to go south on 51 get in the wrong direction of flow of traffic and people need to slow the hell down in the first place.
The number of speeders and drunks being apprehended by police in this whole area is constantly increasing. we had 3 people killed in 2wrong way wrecks on same section of Pa 28 in one weeks time .
I have seen motorists blow thru the circle and red lights across the bridge at 85 MPH in broad daylight and I see people trying to make the now illegal left turns going north all the time.
But what can I tell you motorists in Pa have one of the worst records when it comes to driving and it shows I have been rear ended in my truck over 14 times in 35 years of driving all of them stopped at red lights or stop signs or in traffic stopped or waiting to make a left.
Drivers do not give a dam around here its get out of my way and pay no attention to the road.
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