By Rick Dandes
MIDDLEBURG — Two Midd-West High School students were killed Friday afternoon when they were ejected from a speeding minivan that snapped a utility pole on Sale Barn Road in Middlecreek Township, Snyder County. Three other students were injured, two of whom were flown from the crash scene by Life Flight helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville.
Freshman Kylie Hummel and sophomore Jacob Kemble died at the scene, while Patrick Sullivan, Ethan Miller and Brooke Shwope were injured and taken to Geisinger. It was unclear at press time which two of the three injured students were transported by Life Flight helicopter.
A Geisinger nursing supervisor on Friday night could not give their condition because accident-injured patients who arrive at the emergency room are initially listed as trauma numbers.
Midd-West School District Superintendent Wesley Knapp had just returned from Geisinger on Friday night after visiting the injured students and said, “They are doing well. Physically, they will make it. It’s a difficult thing for them. Like anyone, they don’t even recall (the accident). I’m sure it’s confusing to them.”
Knapp said he called a meeting of school officials and counselors at 10 this morning to discuss how to assist grieving students. When those counseling sessions would be held will be determined at that meeting, he said.
“We’ll talk at this meeting and find out if people want to be available before (Monday to help students),” he said. “We will do whatever we need to help.”
School board President Nancy Kroh on Friday night said: “It’s a pretty sad day.”
The students became the third and fourth youngsters to be killed on Valley roads in the first 68 days of the year.
Cpl. Curtis Albaugh, a state police investigator from the Montoursville station, said a Ford Windstar, driving east on Sale Barn Road, “must have been traveling very fast. On the stretch of road behind Apex Homes, where there is a bump and a curve in the road, the driver lost control of the vehicle.”
It was not known Friday night who was driving the van.
Albaugh said he believes the driver quickly turned the wheel to compensate.
“But in doing so, he drove the car slightly off the road and then again tried to compensate,” Albaugh said. “But this time, he turned the wheel too hard and the minivan slid across the road at a very high speed.”
The minivan hit and knocked over a utility pole, rolled at least once into a farm field and stopped upright on its wheels, Albaugh said.
The driver and the front-seat passenger survived because their air bags deployed, Albaugh said.
“Two people were seated in the second row,” he said. “Both were ejected. One died. The other, a female, flew out of the car and hit the utility pole. I don’t know how she survived the impact, but she did.”
A passenger in the third-row seat was also ejected and killed.
The speed limit on Sale Barn Road is 30 mph, Albaugh said.
Assisting Middleburg Borough police at the scene were the Kreamer Fire Department, Reliance Hose Company’s fire and ambulance services, Dauntless Hook & Ladder’s paramedic unit, Americus Hose Company paramedics, and members of the state police CARS, Accident Investigation Division.
Eight people have died on Valley roads since Jan. 1. Eighteen people died on Valley roads in 2009.
