Separate motor vehicle accidents in the region on Friday and
Saturday claimed the lives of two people, including a
19-year-old.
A motorcycle accident Saturday afternoon in Shippen Township
took the life of Clifford E. Akins, 19, of Emporium, according to
Emporium-based state police. Akins, who was wearing a helmet, was
pronounced dead at the scene by Cameron County Coroner Theodore
Walters.
Akins had been traveling at 3 p.m. on May Hollow Road, less than
a mile west of Chapman Hill Road, when his motorcycle went out of
control while negotiating a left-hand curve, police said. Akins’
bike left the road, traveled down an embankment and struck a
tree.
Police said that Akins had been driving too fast for the
conditions.
Members of the Emporium Volunteer Fire Department and Emporium
Ambulance Services assisted at the scene.
Just a day earlier, a Delaware woman was killed during a
four-vehicle accident on U.S. Route 219 in Ridgway.
A 73-year-old Dover woman, who police did not name, was killed
at 3:30 p.m., and at least two others were injured, according to
Ridgway-based state police. The woman had been wearing a
seatbelt.
The accident occurred as Angela M. Tassone, 46, of Johnsonburg,
was traveling south on Route 219, and she slowed to turn into a
private drive. Meanwhile, a car operated in the same lane by Jack
Cyphert Jr., 56, of Ridgway, failed to stop for Tassone’s
sport-utility vehicle, according to police.
Cyphert’s car rear-ended Tassone’s SUV, pushing it into an
oncoming car driven by Robert Foster Schucker, 51, of Dover, police
said. They collided almost head-on, after which the Schucker car’s
front end hit a legally parked truck at the roadside. Police
reports did not mention anyone being inside the parked car during
the accident.
Cyphert, with minor injuries and Tassone, with moderate
injuries, were taken to Elk Regional Health Center in St. Marys for
treatment, police said. The Dover woman who was killed had been
riding in Robert Schucker’s vehicle, but police did not indicate
whether he or his other passenger had been injured.
Cyphert’s and Tassone’s vehicles sustained major damage;
conditions for the other two vehicles involved were not listed in
police reports.
Police ruled that speeding caused the crash. An investigation is
continuing.
Members of the Johnsonburg Ambulance, Ridgway Borough Police
Department, Ridgway Ambulance, Johnsonburg Volunteer Fire
Department, the Elk County sector of the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation, and Johnsonburg Borough Police Department all
assisted at the scene.
