Route 115 crash fatal for area man

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.comStaff Writer

BEAR CREEK VILLAGE – A White Haven man was killed when he lost control of his vehicle on state Route 115 Tuesday morning.

Luzerne County Coroner John Corcoran identified the man as 55-year-old Gerald Hendershot.

Corcoran said Hendershot was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple traumatic injuries.

The crash happened just before 6:30 a.m. about a quarter mile south of the Bear Creek Dam and Beaupland Road. The speed limit in the area is 45 mph.

State police at Wyoming did not release information about the crash.

Hendershot’s vehicle was towed from the scene on a flat-bed trailer.

Traffic on Route 115 was restricted for about three hours before state police cleared the scene after 8:30 a.m.

Approximately 6,200 vehicles travel on Route 115 daily from the dam to Blakeslee, according to a 2010 traffic study by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The section of roadway where Tuesday’s fatal crash occurred is the same area where Michael Coffee, 69, of Mountain Top, was killed in a drunken-driving crash on Aug. 30, 2008. Shane Herbert, 22, of Bear Creek Township, was convicted of vehicular homicide while DUI in connection with Coffee’s death.

State police at Wyoming said a blood test showed Herbert had an alcohol level of .139 percent.

Statistics from PennDOT show there were seven fatal crashes on Route 115 from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Monroe County line, including 174 various other crashes, from 2005 to 2009.

There were four fatal crashes and 114 various other crashes on Route 115 from the turnpike to Interstate 81.

After two fatal crashes in January 2010, PennDOT lowered the speed limit to 45 mph and turned the left passing lane in both directions into a turning lane from Interstate 81 to the turnpike.