3 people dead after vehicle crashes into plasma center in Pittsburgh

Lauren Rosenblatt | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — Three people died Saturday after a vehicle crashed into a plasma donation center in Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood.

The vehicle crashed into the building on Western Avenue around 11:30 a.m., according to public safety officials. By 1 p.m., with a large portion of Western Avenue still blocked off and fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles still surrounding the building, officials had identified more than seven patients, according to Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich.

Hissrich could not disclose the status of the driver of the vehicle and did not say if the fatalities were employees of the center or individuals visiting to donate plasma.

Additionally, one person was in critical condition and transported to a local trauma center, Hissrich said. Another person was injured, and one paramedic was transported due to smoke inhalation. A firefighter was also transported.

There were 10 employees and five donors inside the building when the crash occurred, but Hissrich said that it appeared the building was cleared of people by 1 p.m. Saturday.

By that time, the vehicle was still inside the building. Firefighters had extinguished the fire inside the building and the center was being examined for structural damage.

A crew of public safety officials and a tow truck company removed the vehicle from the building by about 4 p.m. Saturday.

Jason Bezes, a tow truck driver who was in the parking lot across from the Biomat center at the same time the vehicle crashed into the building, said he estimates the car was moving over 100 miles per hour. It appeared to have come from the West End Bridge before breaking through the building’s wall, and didn’t stop until it reached the back of the building, he said.

Bezes, who is also a volunteer firefighter, said the vehicle couldn’t be seen from the front entrance immediately after the incident.

Employees sitting outside the building declined to comment.

Immediately after the vehicle broke through the building’s wall, Bezes said, people came out worried about burning and itching on their arms and saying they couldn’t breathe. One said there was a woman inside donating plasma. Another said they thought people were dead.

“I just saw people running at me,” Bezes said. “It happened so fast, people were just panicking.”

During a Saturday afternoon press briefing, Hissrich said public safety officials were still working to document the scene, determine the background of the driver and determine where the victims were at the time of the crash — inside the car or inside the building.