Posted on 12/31/2009 08:06

Erie Times-News Family lauds trooper who saved them from having head-on crash Cruiser blocks Jeep from crash Christmas Eve By MIKE MACIAG WARREN -- The quick actions of a Pennsylvania state trooper on Christmas Eve are being lauded this week for saving an Erie family from what could have been a head-on crash with an alleged drunken driver. "At his own peril, he most likely saved our lives," said Michael Morell, 63. Morell was traveling west on Route 6 near Warren with three family members in a Jeep driven by his son, Joel, when Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrew Goss pulled alongside and then passed them. Moments later, the trooper's car slowed and then turned to block off the highway. "We had no idea what was going on and why he was stopping," Morell said. A few seconds later, a Ford Ranger traveling the wrong way on that four-lane stretch of Route 6 slammed into the cruiser at about 60 mph, and then careened into the highway's median. No one was injured in the crash, but the truck and the cruiser sustained major damage. The Morells' Jeep was sideswiped by one of the vehicles, Morell said. The driver of the pickup, a 27-year-old Titusville man, was taken into custody at the scene and later released after submitting to sobriety tests. Police later determined the man's blood-alcohol content was 0.25 percent -- about three times the 0.08 legal limit for driving in Pennsylvania. Police said charges will be filed against the Titusville man this week. The crash was the culmination of a harried few minutes. A motorist had spotted the Ford Ranger moving erratically and called police just after 10 p.m. The tipster followed the truck as it traveled east on Route 6 in Youngsville in Warren County. Once the driver reached an intersection at Railroad Street, he knocked over a street sign and crossed over into the westbound lane, police said. The man continued to drive the wrong way along Route 6 for more than three miles. Goss was one of only two state troopers from the Warren barracks patrolling the area when the call came over the radio. When Goss heard that the truck was traveling on the wrong side of the four-lane highway, he started trying to signal cars off the road. "There was quite a bit of traffic for it being Christmas Eve," Goss said. "I feared that he wasn't going to be able to avoid hitting someone." Goss began to stop after passing the Morells, the last vehicle in a line of cars. When Goss saw the headlights in the distance near the Route 62 exit, the family in the Jeep was next to his cruiser. "My worry was that he was going to hit the people beside me because he started to drift toward them as he was coming down the straightaway," Goss said. That's when he pulled in front of them and blocked the road. The truck hit the trooper's passenger side only four or five seconds later, Morell estimated. Goss, who has been with the state police since June 2008, said the truck would have hit the family head-on had he not reacted. "There's nothing in our (training) manual that's a blanket response to something like that," Goss said. "It's just one of those things you have to mentally prepare for and make a split-second decision."