State trooper dies driving wrong way on Schuylkill Expressway
The tragic circumstances sound almost like bad fiction:
A veteran state trooper – renowned for reconstructing highway crashes and nabbing drunken or negligent motorists – dies in a head-on collision while driving the wrong way on the Schuylkill Expressway in the middle of the night.
And the death of State Police Cpl. John Quigg Jr. came just eight hours before he was due Wednesday morning in Montgomery County Court on his own drunken-driving charge.
The crash seriously injured the other driver, Chantelle Harper, described by a family friend as a gifted young Rosemont College graduate bound for law school.
State police, saying the collision was under investigation, would not comment on whether alcohol or other factors might have placed Quigg, 48, in the wrong lane. Nor did they immediately know where or how fast he was going.
The accident compelled investigators to close the eastbound lanes of the Schuylkill for several hours overnight.
“The loss of Quigg has stunned all of us,” said Trooper Danea Durham, spokeswoman for the state police’s Belmont barracks, where Quigg worked. “I’ve always found him to be one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve known here.”
But shortly after 1 a.m., Quigg drove his 10-year-old Honda Accord the wrong way onto the expressway from the eastbound Spring Garden exit in Philadelphia, police said.
Moving west in the eastbound lanes, Quigg’s car struck a 1994 Mercury Marquis driven by Harper, 23, of South Philadelphia. Unlike Quigg, she was wearing a seat belt.
Harper was listed in good condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after surgery for leg injuries. Quigg was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at Hahnemann University Hospital.
Photographs from the scene showed severe front-end damage to both vehicles.
Black said the large size of her car probably protected her. “If she was driving anything else, she’d be dead.”
If you or your family member has suffered injury from the hands of a drunk driver, Ciccarelli Lawyers will fight for you.
