Published: May 30, 2007 01:06 pm      

COLLISION: Drivers recovering after morning wreck in Royalton

ROYALTON — Two truckers narrowly escaped what could have been a fatal collision Tuesday morning.

Just after 8 a.m., two semis collided almost head-on at Gasport and Chestnut Ridge roads, leaving one truck twisted and mangled, on its side in the front yard of a home.

“This is something we don’t see very often,” said Terry’s Corners Third Assistant Chief Dan Hausman of the scene.

The first truck, a Ryder rented out of Buffalo or Rochester, was apparently headed south on Gasport Road and was stopped at the traffic light. When the light turned green, the truck entered the intersection and was hit by the second truck, registered to Cox Transportation Company in Ashland, Va., which was traveling east on Chestnut Ridge Road.

“It was kind of a careening-type blow,” Niagara County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chris Carlin said. “It wasn’t a total head-on, but it was more of almost a T-bone collision.”

The collision ripped open the trailer of the Cox Transportation truck, sending its cargo — eight 5,000-pound rolls of paper — careening into the road.

The Cox truck slid off the road on its side and struck a tree in front of 7974 Chestnut Ridge Road, nicking a telephone pole on the corner. Nobody was in that house at the time, Carlin said.

The driver of the Ryder truck, David Mancuso of Silver Springs, was taken by Mercy Flight to ECMC with head and internal injuries and possible broken bones. Carlin said Mancuso’s injuries were not life-threatening.

Mancuso was listed in fair condition at ECMC on Tuesday afternoon.

The driver of the Cox Transportation truck, David Pannell of Richmond, Va., was taken by ground ambulance to Lockport Memorial Hospital. Carlin said Panell’s injuries were “minor.”

Carlin said the accident could have been a lot worse, especially if other vehicles had been involved.

“Just by the looks of it, you’d think somebody died,” he said. “It’s a good thing there was nobody sitting at this light ... if you had a car or a family in a car sitting right there, especially with those big rolls of paper flying out there.”

Emergency personnel worked into Tuesday afternoon cleaning up the scene while the Niagara County Accident Reconstruction Unit began to piece together what happened.

Terry’s Corners led the scene, assisted by Gasport and South Lockport fire companies.

Both trucks’ fuel tanks ruptured, spilling about 100 gallons of diesel fuel into the road, over the front lawn of the house and into the storm sewer.

James Volkosh, Niagara County’s emergency services director, said the health department and county Hazmat crews were working to clean up the fuel as quick as possible.

“The front yard, where it’s already absorbed into the ground, you’ll wind up digging that up,” Volkosh said. “We do eventually want to get into that house and just make sure there’s nothing wrong inside the house.”

Terry’s Corners First Assistant Chief Chris McClune said it would take “a lot of hard work and a couple of large wreckers” to get the debris off the road.

“It’s a mess,” McClune said. “We’re doing our best to clean things up.”

Vaughn Gursslin, a retired trucker, heard about the accident on the radio and went to the scene.

“I don’t know how they even survived,” he said. “To see a tractor literally twisted like a pretzel is horrible.”

Volkosh agreed that both truckers were lucky to escape with their lives.

“It could have been a double fatality,” he said. “You’re taking two vehicles that have got a lot of weight behind them, hitting fairly close to head-on. When you’ve got that kind of force involved, anything can happen.”

Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.