Meyersdale 'struggling' with 3 deaths
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Meyersdale Area High School students Tyler Sechler, Detrick Peterman, Jonathan McKinney, Shawn Baer and Josh Hay erect crosses in memory of their classmates and teammates Lee Gnagey, Austin Johnson and Logan Buterbaugh, who died in a car crash at the site.
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MEYERSDALE -- Logan Buterbaugh's life was on the upswing.
The Somerset County 15-year-old had been cancer-free for six months after a battle with Hodgkin's disease. He was back at Meyersdale Area High School, wrestled this past season and was on the Red Raiders baseball team.
Logan and two other sophomore baseball players, Austin Johnson and Lee Gnagey, got into a car after school Thursday, planning to hang out until an evening practice. They never made it back.
Austin, who got his junior driver's license on Feb. 24, was at the wheel of the family car he had made his own when it crashed about a mile from the school at around 3:30 p.m.
Their northbound car struck a berm on Route 219 in Summit, went airborne in a gap between the northbound and southbound lanes, dropped about 40 feet, landed on an embankment and slid at least another 100 feet into Elk Lick Creek. The car landed on its roof, and all three boys were killed.
Logan and Lee died of blunt force trauma. Autopsy results for Austin were pending, said a spokesman for the Somerset County coroner's office.
The deaths cast a pall over small-town Meyersdale, known for its Pennsylvania Maple Festival, and the surrounding countryside dotted with Amish farms.
"We're struggling," said Logan's father, Timothy L. Buterbaugh, asking for prayers.
State police in Greensburg said "the driver was apparently racing at least one other vehicle" when he lost control. Township Police Chief Nathan W. Claycomb said he believed speed played a role but didn't yet know whether the boys were racing on the road, which would have been busy at that hour with after-school traffic.
"We have a lot more witnesses we have to interview regarding that piece of information," he said. The witnesses include students too shaken to give statements now, he said.
News of the accident quickly spread Thursday night, with some friends alerting each other by text messages, said Carey Carnline, a Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School student who previously attended Meyersdale Area High and knew two of the boys.
More than 150 students and parents gathered at the school to grieve and stayed well into the evening, Meyersdale Area School District Superintendent Tracey Karlie said.
The high school has only about 300 students, and as athletes, Austin, Lee and Logan were widely known, Dr. Karlie said.
At breakfast yesterday, Shirley Martz gently asked her grandson, Randy, a Meyersdale freshman and football player, how he was coping with the crash.
"I'm strong," he told her. She said she told him to support those who aren't.
Attendance at the high school was higher than usual yesterday, with only about 20 students absent. "The students, I think, really wanted to be there," Dr. Karlie said.
Samantha Neimiller, a sophomore, said even the football players cried.
"It was awful," she said. "Everybody was so down, and the halls were so quiet."
Friends and community members held a memorial service along the ice-slicked creek last night. Samantha didn't go, saying, "It would be too much for me."
Chief Claycomb said Mount Davis Road was shut down about 90 minutes for the memorial service, which drew at least 200 people.
Austin played football and baseball. He enjoyed snowboarding, bowling and golf. He was an honors student, liked math and chemistry and had thought about an engineering degree.
"He had talked about going to WVU," his aunt, Chris Lindeman, said.
Lee liked NASCAR and had traveled with his family to Dover, Del., for races. He'd been to the Caribbean, too. He played football and baseball during the school year and American Legion ball during the summer.
Lee's death has been especially hard on his 9-year-old brother, Trevor. "The reality that he's not coming home hasn't set in with him," Lee's grandmother, Margaret Gnagey, said.
Logan participated in school musicals. He looked forward to turning 16 so he could drive. He enjoyed family vacations to Ocean City, Md., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.
He followed Ohio State, the Steelers and the Penguins. Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, he and his father traveled to Pittsburgh, met the Penguins and watched a game from Sidney Crosby's VIP seats.
Timothy Buterbaugh said his son was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in January 2008 and missed much of the last school year while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.
"It was tough," he said. "We were all scared there for a while. The kid went through a lot of stuff."
To the amazement of family and friends, Logan had bounced back in a big way. "Then this happened," his father said.
The boys' funeral arrangements are being handled by William Rowe Price Funeral Home, Meyersdale. A community Web site, www.meyersdale.org, has set up an online condolence book.
State police from Troop A, Greensburg, who are helping Summit officers with accident reconstruction, yesterday issued a public safety announcement warning drivers--particularly younger drivers--to be more careful.
State police said the Meyersdale accident was the second in four days involving "young drivers and risky driving behaviors." In the other accident, an unlicensed 16-year-old girl was driving to school with three schoolmates when she lost control and flipped the car.
State police said there were injuries but did not specify how many were hurt or say where or when the accident occurred. Chief Claycomb said he was not familiar with that case.
This isn't the first time that tragedy has struck Meyersdale. In 1982, six people were killed when their car was struck by a string of five locomotives.
First Published March 7, 2009 12:00 am
