By Rick Dandes
FREEBURG — A Mount Pleasant Mills woman was killed and one of two passengers critically injured Tuesday evening when she lost control of a pickup truck, which rolled and hit a tree in Washington Township, Snyder County.
Tina Kantz, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which occurred at 6:42 p.m. on Reservoir Hill Road, about a quarter-mile off Route 35. Andrew Kantz, 43, of Mount Pleasant Mills, was flown by LifeFlight helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center, in Danville, where he was listed in critical condition at 11 p.m.
A second passenger, Justin Watson, 27, of Freeburg, suffered a minor injury.
None of the occupants was wearing seat belts.
Tina Kantz was driving home about 6 p.m., bringing chicken wings to her children for supper.
State police trooper Chad Shultz, of the Selinsgrove station, said the pickup truck was apparently speeding, failed to negotiate a left-hand curve and crossed the road.
The Ford Ranger flipped and struck a tree.
Minutes later, neighbors and friends of Andrew Kantz were on the scene, even before the first responders from the Freeburg Fire Department arrived.
A friend of Andrew Kantz's, named Leslie "” she refused to provide her last name "” ran to the truck and could see that Tina Kantz was gravely injured.
"I saw Andy on the side of the road, bloodied over the face," she said, nearly in tears. "They are really nice people. I had just seen him minutes ago getting chicken. He was off the road, saying, 'I can't see, I can't see. Where's my wife, where's my wife?' ... I didn't have the heart to tell him what happened. I just couldn't."
A friend of Andrew Kantz's brother, Justin Sharp, of Mount Pleasant Mills, also arrived minutes after the crash.
"I'm a little shook up," he said, shaking.
By the time Sharp arrived, Andrew Kantz was outside the truck.
"I was afraid to touch him, to help him, although I wanted to," Sharp said. "This was terrible. I didn't know how seriously he was injured and I didn't want to make things worse."
Freeburg fire police closed Reservoir Hill Road from 6 p.m. on. The road was still closed to traffic at 9 p.m. while police investigated.
Assisting state police and the Freeburg Fire Department were DH&L, of Selinsgrove, and Middleburg police.
Tina Kantz becomes the third person to die on Valley roads in the past 10 days, and ninth since Jan. 1.
A driver in one of those fatal accidents "” Sandra Resenhoeft, 56, of 201 Lamplight Lane, Lewisburg "” was listed in fair condition Tuesday night by a nursing supervisor at Geisinger Medical Center. She had been critically injured in the April 3 crash on Interstate 80 in Liberty Township, Montour County that killed Rolf Resenhoeft.
Eighteen people died in accidents in Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties in 2009.
n E-mail comments to rdandes@dailyitem.com
