Two people were injured and hospitalized after a juvenile male driver struck three cars on Boulevard of the Allies directly outside of the Student Center at around 1:40 a.m. on Friday, March 21.
According to Point Park Chief of Police, Jeff Besong, the driver lost control of the vehicle. He then struck a parked car before getting into a head-on collision with another car and hitting another parked vehicle.
The male driver was extracted from the vehicle with a broken pelvis and two broken legs, according to a Pittsburgh Police report.
The report added that a female passenger in the vehicle was also removed and taken to the hospital in stable condition. It was not specified what hospital the victims were taken to.
Point Park police and city emergency responders blocked off parts of the 300 block of Allies to assist the victims.
No university property?was damaged.
Pittsburgh Police note in the report of the accident that a firearm was retrieved from the vehicle. It is currently unknown what kind of firearm, or if it was related to the accident.
An investigation into the crash is currently ongoing as of publication.
Point Park police sent out a PointALERT to students at 2:09 a.m., advising them of the accident and to avoid the area until further notice.
The alert was not sent out immediately because the accident did not pose an immediate threat to campus, Lou Corsaro, assistant vice president of public relations, said.
The university’s PointALERT webpage says only incidents that directly threaten students require a “timely warning.”
They must occur either on campus property or in areas where students frequent, the webpage says.
Some of these incidents include arson, assault, criminal homicide, robbery and sexual assault.
“A car accident wouldn’t fall under that area,” Corsaro said. “However, once first responders got to the scene and had to block off parts of the Boulevard of the Allies, it was determined that the campus community should be made aware of the road blockage.”
Anna Castleman, a sophomore dance major, said she was walking back from Genoa Pizza with some friends when she saw police lights surrounding the accident.
“We got the alerts and we were like, ‘You guys, don’t walk home yet,’” Castleman said.
Castleman said she agreed that the accident did not demand a timely warning from PointALERT.
“I get how a car crash isn’t going to threaten us,” Castleman said, “unless you don’t want to see that while you’re walking around campus. From a safety standpoint that makes sense, as long as that’s not a standard for all [the] chaos that happens.”
Debbie Wason, a senior dance major, said that after she got the PointALERT she was unsure if she would be able to get into Boulevard Apartments. She arrived on the scene after emergency responders had taken both victims to the hospital.
“There was one car all the way on the sidewalk that was completely mushed in the front,” Wason said.
She added that she had mixed opinions on the timing of the PointALERT.
“It seemed very vacated by the time we got there [after the PointALERT] got sent out,” Wason said. “I feel like that’s maybe putting some people in danger, but also [that] they have more important things to do; like attend[ing] to that situation before they send out a little text.”
Sydney Rendahl, a senior PR/AD major, said she thought the message should have been sent out sooner.
“I do think it is kind of outlandish to just wait that long,” Rendahl said, “Once [Wason] was walking home, it wasn’t a big deal or a danger at that point really.”
Rendahl said she thinks PointALERTs should be sent out with the same swiftness as occurred during the shooting on Smithfield Street in February.
“I hope that they [will] be more diligent,” Rendahl said, “about sending things out quickly when it’s more of an immediate threat–like the shooting by Burlington. I think that was immediate. So that’s good, but I hope they were just responding to the crash before sending a PointALERT.”
Alejandro Perez, a senior business major, said his girlfriend–who was not immediately available for comment–was stuck Downtown and unable to drive to his Southside residence because of the crash.
“She was supposed to come to my place and she just couldn’t,” Perez said.
Perez said he thinks the alert should have been sent out sooner.
“I think we should get alerts way ahead of what we got in this event,” Perez said. “Especially [if] people are moving around, and [there are] a lot of police officers. People see [that] and they’re like, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ We need information about it.”
Perez said beyond this accident he thinks Point Park police do a good job sending out alerts in a timely manner.
“I get the text message, and then I get a phone call,” Perez said. “I think that’s good. But, I think in this case it could have been faster.”
