83-year-old Greensburg woman identified by police as wrong-way driver in Route 30 crash

State police have identified an 83-year-old Greensburg woman as being the wrong-way driver who caused a multi-vehicle crash Wednesday on Route 30 in Hempfield.

Nancy Duva entered the eastbound lanes of the divided highway going west in Subaru Crosstrek around 5:15 p.m., causing the crash just past the Cedar Street exit at a bend in the highway, troopers said.

Duva struck a Dodge Ram being driven by Jace Bartsch, 20, of Wheeling, W.Va., along with a second car, a Hyundai Elantra being driven by Kassidy Warfel, 27, of Latrobe, police said.

Bartsch and Warfel were both eastbound.

Duva and Bartsch were taken to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Mutual Aid spokesperson Shawn Penzera said. Their conditions are unknown. Warfel refused treatment, police said.

The sight distance for eastbound travelers on that section of Route 30 is difficult, state police Trooper Steve Limani said.

“The sight distance is designed for people traveling the speed limit or close to it,” he said. “Add a vehicle driving toward you at the same speed … your sight distance is basically cut in half. You basically have no chance — it’s almost no chance.”

The road was closed for four hours while state police reconstructed the crash. About 37,000 vehicles use that stretch of highway daily, according to a PennDOT traffic volume map. Traffic was detoured onto Route 119 and various side streets.

Limani said the highway is so busy at that time of day, he is surprised there weren’t more injuries.

A video recorded by a driver in the westbound lanes and posted on social media showed what appeared to be an SUV driving the wrong direction and slamming into a pickup truck other motorists avoided the collision. Video from Trib news partner WTAE showed a car that appeared to have collided with the pickup. Both had front-end damage. The SUV came to a stop several feet west.

In March 2021, AAA and the National Transportation Safety Board warned motorists of an increasing rate of wrong-way crashes resulting in fatalities. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that there were 2,008 deaths from wrong-way crashes on divided highways nationwide between 2015 and 2018.

Authorities charged a Charlotte, N.C., man who was eastbound on the westbound side of Interstate 376 near Downtown Pittsburgh on April 13 when he struck an oncoming car, causing a collision that left two people dead.

And a little over a year ago, a Scottdale woman was arrested and charged with homicide by vehicle after, police said, she was driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 in South Huntingdon, causing a 2022 crash that killed David Ott of Perryopolis.

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