FOUNTAIN SPRINGS - A 25-year-old Ashland man died when the car in which he was a passenger struck a mail delivery van, a parked pickup truck and a house on Route 61, Fountain Street, in Butler Township about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Schuylkill County Deputy Coroner Scott P. Clews said he pronounced Sean Harris dead at 1:03 p.m. at the scene of the crash.
Clews said a virtual autopsy on the man was to be performed Wednesday night and a full autopsy was scheduled for today at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.
Butler Township police are investigating the crash but did not have any further information available as of press time Wednesday.
Personnel at the scene identified the driver of the car as Jack Harris, also of Ashland. Harris was taken to a Pottsville hospital for treatment of nonlife-threatening injuries.
A woman delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service, whose vehicle was struck by Harris' car, was taken to Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital for observation.
Ronald Wolfe, Ashland, was driving a pickup truck south on Route 61 when he said Harris' vehicle passed him in a legal passing zone.
As the road merged back into one lane, Wolfe said Harris' car was in front of him when the driver veered to the left over the center line and then back into the proper lane. The car veered to the left again, crossing the northbound lane and hitting the mail van, causing it to spin around and continue south along the northbound berm of the road.
The car continued until it struck a pickup owned by James Neumeister, Fountain Springs, that was parked at his home, witnesses said.
Neumeister said he was chopping wood in front of his home along with a friend, Draven Prentize-Crist, when the crash occurred. Neumeister said he told Prentize-Crist to check his mailbox to the south of his home, and after Prentize-Crist walked away, Harris' car came crashing into his property.
"He would have been killed if I didn't ask him to check the mail," Neumeister said.
The man also said he had his back toward the north and didn't see the car coming toward him.
"I was cutting wood when I felt it brush against the back of my legs," he said.
After crashing under a front roof of Neumeister's home, Harris' car came to a stop facing north between stacked firewood and the home.
Assisting at the scene were Schuylkill County First Assistant Coroner Dr. Joseph Weber, Deputy Coroner Andrew Szczyglak, Shenandoah, Ashland EMS, Shenandoah ALS, firefighters from Ashland, Fountain Springs and Frackville and Frackville police.
A part of Route 61 was closed for several hours while police investigated the crash.