Pitt-Greensburg Students Call for Change Following Accident on Mount Pleasant Road
by Jed Kudrick and Mason Sepesky
Photo Courtesy of Pitt-Greensburg's Webpage
Pitt-Greensburg students are calling for change following the accident that took place on Nov. 14, 2023.
Pitt-Greensburg’s Audrey Fruehauf, 18, of Rector, was struck by a vehicle while crossing Mount Pleasant Road to get to University Courts. She was life flighted to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital where she remains in critical condition.
This accident has motivated students to call for change, so that another accident like this never takes place again.
Freshman Zakery Wiles is one of the students calling for several actions to improve campus safety.
“We’re calling for a two-pronged approach between the school and Hempfield Township,” Wiles said. “First, we want better lighting installed by Pitt. Second, we want Hempfield Township to put in place speed bumps to help reduce speed.”
Several students said that they were upset by the lack of information they received on campus after the accident. Students like Senior Terah Stoup want better Emergency Notification System (ENS) communication from the university.
“We didn’t receive any information from the university until later that night when we received a test email from Dr. Gregerson,” Stoup said. “I do not know if Pitt-Greensburg has the ability to use the ENS system, but they should.”
According to Lieutenant Dan Lynch of the Pitt-Greensburg Police Department, Pitt-Greensburg’s policy is to deploy the ENS system when there is an imminent threat to campus to instruct students on how to respond to the threat. The accident, according to Lynch, was not considered an imminent threat. Examples of imminent threats that would result in an ENS alert include things like an active shooter situation or imminent dangerous weather, Lynch said.
Pitt-Greensburg President Dr. Robert Gregerson said representatives from both Pitt’s Oakland campus and Pitt-Greensburg have met with the Pitt-Greensburg Student Government Association to discuss students’ concerns regarding the ENS system.
“We discussed better communication strategies for situations such as this tragic accident,” Dr. Gregerson said. “More to follow, but we will be making changes to better inform our community members during events when rapid communication is necessary.”
For now, according to Wiles, students plan to continue the call for change to keep University Courts residents, and Pitt-Greensburg safe.
The Insider 
We wouldn’t need to make a safer crosswalk for the students if they would just use common sense. Get your faces out of the screen and the buds out of your ears. It’s a public roadway, open your eyes and look for cars.
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I’ve seen first hand on how vehicles fly up and down this road. They don’t seem to think about what the speed limit is there. Common sense should tell the drivers that they know there is a college campus that has been there so they need to slow down and remember that there is a crosswalk there. It’s not there just because, there is a reason. Just because some younger people are on there devices doesn’t condemn the whole student body! Don’t blame it on the students. As a driver of a vehicle you need to be aware of your surroundings!
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