Woman, 86, dies after crash into police car in Bethlehem Pennsylvania

An 86-year-old Bucks County woman who was a passenger in a car that struck a Pennridge Regional police vehicle and caused injuries to a police officer on Route 309 in West Rockhill Township Thursday night has died.

Lois Y. Weber of 24 Autumn Leaf Circle, West Rockhill Township, was pronounced dead at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Salisbury Township at 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The Lehigh County coroner's office ruled her death an accident due to blunt force trauma to her chest and abdomen.

Weber was a passenger in a car driven by her neighbor, Ellwood Nice, 83, of 28 Autumn Leaf Circle, when it crashed into the back of a Pennridge Regional police sport-utility-vehicle parked on the southbound shoulder of Route 309 between the Perkasie and Telford exits about 7:45 p.m. Thursday.The SUV was pushed into the back of a police car also parked on the shoulder, and the police car then hit Pennridge police officer Pedro Ruiz in the legs.

Ruiz, Nice and his wife Regina, 76, who also was a passenger in the car, were treated at Grand View Hospital for injuries, state police said.
The accident happened while the two Pennridge police vehicles were parked on the shoulder with their lights flashing behind a minivan that had pulled onto the shoulder after becoming disabled. The minivan had driven over debris from a truck that lost its rear axle while hauling a modular trailer.