Police Search for SUV Driver Involved in Scranton Wreck
By: Eric Deabill
Updated: November 20, 2012
Scranton, Lackawanna County - Police in Scranton are still searching for the driver who caused a big crash that closed the inbound lanes of the Central Scranton Expressway Monday morning.
The driver hit another vehicle and then went down a steep enbankment before the man took off.
The crash happened just after 8:00 AM Monday morning.
Police say it is amazing no one was seriously hurt or killed.
The SUV ended-up down a steep embankment, down more than 100 feet.
"Thank God it turned out the way it did," Assistant Scranton Fire Chief Jim Floryshak said. "I guess, we had the best possible outcome where there were minor, if not no injuries. If the person were still entrapped in the car, that would have been a very difficult extracation and technical rescue to get him out of there."
Eyewitnesses say they saw the male driver get out of the car, cross Roaring Brook and walk onto the railroad tracks.
First responders started a search for him. They never found him. They mainly wanted to make sure he is okay.
"There was a lot of damage to the vehicle, so you would think normally that someone that was in that vehicle suffered some sort of injury, a head injury, something along those lines so we wanted to make sure they didn't cross over into the tracks there and start heading out of town, possibly being disoriented, not knowing where they were, what they were doing," Floryshak said.
Before going down the embankment, police say the SUV crossed over the expressway median and hit a rental car driven by 18-year-old Alyssa Caucci of Sterling.
Investigators say say was taken to a nearby hospital and later released. She did not have serious injuries.
After seeing the SUV go down the embankment, first responders say two drivers that stopped tried to go down the embankment to help the man. One of them got stuck and needed to be rescued by rope. He was not hurt.
"The embankment there is very steep. It's wet, in fact, this morning it was still icy because of the temperature," Floryshak said.
Police say they have identified the owner of the SUV, a woman who lives in West Scranton. She told police she loaned the vehicle to a man she really didn't know.
If the driver is found, he could face charges in connection with the wreck in Lackawanna County.
