Driver falls asleep at the wheel and kills a man

Bus memorial at the crash site.

Dave Roenigk’s family owns a school bus company located on a bend in Ekastown Road in Buffalo Township. On June 19, he was mowing the grass on their property when a driver fell asleep at the wheel and failed to navigate the bend, crashed into Roenigk, and killed him. Township police are waiting on a report from a State Police accident reconstruction unit before deciding whether to charge the driver.

Ekastown Road is a two-lane rural road with a posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour. Between Ekastown and Clinton, it is also the alignment for Pennsylvania State Route 228. It is maintained by PennDOT District 10.

While Buffalo Township Police have yet to charge the driver, they are clearly the party at fault. When you are tired enough to fall asleep at the wheel, you shouldn’t be driving. However, people do drive drowsy, or drunk, or distracted, and infrastructure can be used to lessen the impact of these drivers. Guardrails are often the go-to options on dangerous curves, along with signage, but there are other options like ditches, rows of trees, or even small bollards and chains like those protecting the car dealership at the corner of Ekastown and Sarver Roads, that may be less visually intrusive while still providing improved protection.

This is the second deadly crash in Buffalo Township in less than a month. on May 29, Dylan Turbi was killed on Cole Road when a driver who had the sun in his eyes hit and killed him. Now may be the time to demand more from the leaders of the Township to make changes to their roads, and request that PennDOT do the same. To do so, contact the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Ron Zampogna III at (724) 294-0109 or Rzampogna@buffalotownship.com, and the Township Manager, Richard G. Hill, at Rhill@buffalotownship.com.