Crime & Courts

January 11, 2009

Driver killed in one-car crash Police Blotter

WINDHAM TWP. – A driver was killed and a passenger hospitalized with serious injuries after a one-vehicle crash on state Route 3001 in Wyoming County on Friday night.

Donald Wildrick, of Laceyville, lost control of his 1994 Chevrolet Cavalier around 9:30 p.m. and struck a tree, according to state police at Tunkhannock. He was thrown from his vehicle, police said.

Wildrick was pronounced dead at the scene by the Wyoming County coroner, police said.

Luis Gomez, a passenger in the vehicle, was flown by Life Flight helicopter to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Bradford County, police said.

Police are continuing to investigate the late-night crash, police said.

PITTSTON – A man is in critical condition after he was struck by a vehicle around 10 p.m. Friday, city police said.

Several witnesses told police the pedestrian, Harold Williams, 51, of Pittston, walked in the path of a vehicle heading north on South Main Street, near East Frothingham Street, police said.

Williams was taken by ambulance to the trauma center at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, police said.

The driver, Mary Esther Terruso, 50, of Duryea, told police the man walked right in front of her vehicle, police said.

The investigation is ongoing, police said. No charges have been filed.

WILKES-BARRE – City police reported the following:

A woman reported she was with her 4-year-old son when she was attacked by three unknown females at Kirby Park on Thursday.

Margaret Raimondi, of Hanover Township, told police she had her friend pick her up and take her to Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre. She told police she didn’t know why she was attacked.

One of the suspects was described as wearing a red coat and black sweatpants and another suspect was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans, police said.

Raimondi’s son was taken to a hospital and turned over to his mother, police said.

A Sugar Notch man was treated at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital after he was struck in the face with a bottle at 12 S. Main St. on Thursday night.

The victim described the suspect as a white male in his mid-20s, approximately 5 feet, 7 inches tall, stocky build and wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, police said.

A city woman reported an unknown male suspect told her he was an employee of a water company and tried to get her to go to her rear yard with him at 99 Bowman St. around 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

The woman refused, and the man became irate and took off in a 1990s white panel van with another male in the vehicle.

The suspect is described as a light complexion male, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall with a thin build.

HAZLE TWP. – A Tresckow man had to be taken to a hospital after a two-vehicle crash near an intersection on Main Street on Friday, police said.

Thomas J. Shicowich, 48, of Strong, who was driving a 2004 Dodge 2500, was traveling south when he turned left in front of a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt being driven by 19-year-old Rick D. Erbe, who was traveling north, state police at Hazleton said.

The Cobalt then struck the right side of the Dodge with its front end, police said.

Erbe was taken by ambulance for medical treatment at Hazleton General Hospital, according to police. The extent of his injury was not immediately known, police said.

Shicowich was charged with a violation for not yielding the right-of-way to the vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, police said.

EAST UNION TWP. – A Hazleton man had to be flown to a hospital after he crashed his vehicle near North Union Township in Schuylkill County on Friday night, state police at Frackville said.

Michael Crockford, 23, was traveling south on state Route 1005 when his 2000 Chevrolet pickup truck left the roadway and crashed into a group of trees on the west berm, police said.

Crockford was flown to the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, police said.

Police are still investigating the one-vehicle crash, according to police. Charges are pending the outcome of the investigation, police said.

SUGARLOAF TWP. – State police at Hazleton are investigating a multiple-vehicle crash that occurred on westbound Interstate 80 at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Both lanes of the interstate were closed at mile marker 251 in Luzerne County near the Columbia County line, according to state Department of Transportation, District 4-0. Lanes reopened just before 3 p.m.

It was not immediately known if anyone was seriously injured or how many vehicles were involved in the mid-afternoon crash.

No further information was available as of late Saturday, police said.

HUNTINGTON TWP. – Donald Cleary, 65, of Shickshinny, reported to state police at Shickshinny that someone took the hydraulic cylinder from his plow in front of his home on Dodson Cemetery Road sometime between Dec. 20 and 9:30 a.m. Friday.

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