A New Oxford High School student was killed Tuesday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash on Grant Drive in Hanover. Erica Rummel, 17, of the 1500 block of Carlisle Pike, Hanover, was pronounced dead at Hanover Hospital at 2:20 p.m., an hour after the accident, according to the York County Coroner's office. A spokeswoman for the coroner said the victim was a student at New Oxford High School.
She was the front-seat passenger in a 2005 Ford Escape, according to Hanover police.
Three other teenage girls suffered serious injuries, Hanover police said. Their identities had not been released at press time this morning. The driver of the car, police said, was flown to Hershey Medical Center for trauma treatment. The two rear-seat passengers were flown to York Hospital, where one was listed this morning in stable condition. York County Deputy Coroner Claude Stabley said an autopsy was to be performed on Rummel today at Lehigh Valley Medical Center. The vehicle was headed westbound on Grant Drive when it crashed into a tree on the north side of the 200 block of Grant Drive, near DeGuy Avenue, and spun into the middle of the street. Debris from the crash was scattered across the front yard and across DeGuy Avenue. Hanover police Chief Randy Whitson said Tuesday it was too soon to tell how fast the SUV was going when it hit the tree. Grant Drive was closed from Clearview Road to Barberry Drive until Tuesday evening. Whitson said state police reconstructionists and forensic specialists were assisting with the investigation. Motorists and neighbors in the vicinity of the crash quickly sprang into action to extricate those inside the vehicle, which caught fire after the impact. "I grabbed my first-aid kit, then saw the fire," said motorist Tammy Mushrush, a Hanover native in town visiting family. "We just all kicked into gear to get the fire out." Mushrush rushed to the front door of Marian Henry, in front of whose house the crash happened. "This gal came and knocked on my door and asked for blankets and the hose," said Henry, who was in the back of her house when the crash happened. "It sounded like the biggest clap of thunder." The garden hose did not reach the front of the vehicle, so neighbors and motorists grabbed empty planter pots, filled them with water, and dumped them on the front of the SUV, Mushrush said. Another neighbor brought out a fire extinguisher, which was spent quickly. Others worked to get the crash victims from the vehicle. One was Jim Anderson, who lives on Grant Drive near the crash scene.
With blood stains on his white jacket, a visibly shaken Anderson described trying to reach the young woman on the front passenger side, which sustained the brunt of the impact. "Oh God, I feel so sorry for that girl," he said, shaking his head. Chief Whitson commended the efforts of the neighbors who came out to help. "Any actions by the citizens to put out the fire before responders arrived definitely impacted the severity of what would have happened," he said. "It was a very courageous thing for them to come out and try to help." Hanover Fire Commissioner James Roth said all of the passengers were out of the vehicle within 30 minutes, and firefighters from Hanover and Penn Township quickly extinguished the flames. Medic units from Hanover and York hospitals and ambulances from Penn Township and Adams County's Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services and United Hook and Ladder Co. 33 also were called. Hanover police wrapped Henry's front yard and much of that section of Grant Drive with yellow caution tape as officers investigated. Meanwhile, Mushrush stood with Henry on her front porch, hands clasped. "I'm just praying now," she said.