{"id":186023,"date":"2026-05-07T06:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186023\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:23:06","slug":"horrific-witness-describes-moments-before-after-deadly-crash-near-fort-duquesne-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186023\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Horrific:\u2019 Witness describes moments before &#038; after deadly crash near Fort Duquesne Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PITTSBURGH \u2014 Nick Hunter was a passenger in the car behind a black SUV that crashed over a barrier on the ramp from Route 65 to the Fort Duquesne Bridge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/2-people-taken-hospital-after-crash-pittsburghs-north-side-route-65-restricted\/Z6UF355IJZGFJHP6LRU76C5J2Y\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/local\/2-people-taken-hospital-after-crash-pittsburghs-north-side-route-65-restricted\/Z6UF355IJZGFJHP6LRU76C5J2Y\/\">RELATED COVERAGE &gt;&gt;&gt; 2 people dead after vehicle goes off deck near Fort Duquesne Bridge during 5-vehicle crash<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cIt was horrific,\u201d Hunter said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/photos-vehicle-goes\/73SATT7OTFGDXEKGBCNOVEHNOQ\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/news\/photos-vehicle-goes\/73SATT7OTFGDXEKGBCNOVEHNOQ\/\">PHOTOS: Vehicle goes over deck near Fort Duquesne Bridge after 5-vehicle crash<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">He told Channel 11 the car had been moving erratically, so he started filming. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cThat person was driving 100+ m.p.h. a good four or five miles while I was behind him [&#8230;] Looked like they may have been dancing to music,\u201d Hunter said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">In the video, you can see the SUV approaching the bridge. The video does not show the car going over the barrier, but it does show the aftermath. Four other cars were significantly damaged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">In one, a woman had to be cut out. She was taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest, where she died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cThe other person who died could have been any of us,\u201d Hunter said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">He told Channel 11 he knows CPR and tried to help, but he and other witnesses couldn\u2019t get the driver out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cThe driver\u2019s side door was crushed. There was no way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">On Reedsdale Street, a trail of debris led to the place where the black SUV came to rest. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The driver was thrown from the vehicle and was pronounced dead on scene. He was later identified as Michael Smith, 52, of Sheraden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">More than three hours after the crash, the cars were towed away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">No cause of the crash has been officially given. Pittsburgh police are leading the investigation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWe all know it takes a pretty significant amount of speed and force to flip over a bridge deck,\u201d Police Chief Jason Lando said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Meantime, Hunter tells Channel 11 the ordeal was traumatic for everyone. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cThis made me realize one thing: life is precious,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Officials say about a dozen people were involved. No one else was injured. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Nick Hunter was a passenger in the car behind a black SUV that crashed over a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[869,2465,40926,12256,4929,40735,861,83019,139,83020,14345,859,73,75,74,83021,867,866,31527,420,860],"class_list":["post-186023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-channel_11","tag-channel_11_news","tag-drone_11","tag-fort_duquesne_bridge","tag-gordon_lash","tag-hunter","tag-lisa_sylvester","tag-michael_smith","tag-news","tag-nick_hunter","tag-north_shore","tag-ott_news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-reedsdale_street","tag-rich","tag-rich_pierce","tag-sheridan","tag-video","tag-wpxi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}