Jamie Dixon details recue of crash victims

Pitt men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon is making news — not for his team’s play on the… Pitt men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon is making news — not for his team’s play on the court, but for lending a helping hand at the scene of a car crash this past weekend.

Dixon helped two female victims inside an SUV that had flipped over against a guard rail on Interstate 279 near the McKnight Road exit just north of Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

According to the police report, a Ford Escape was traveling north on I-279 around 9:30 p.m. when it swerved suddenly, crossed two lanes of traffic and struck a concrete barrier with the front end on the passenger side. The car rolled over and stopped on the right shoulder of the road.

“I was driving home from practice,” Dixon said in a Monday morning press conference. “Right up in front of me, all of a sudden this car started veering off to the right dramatically and was heading straight into the wall.”

He said he then pulled over to the side of the road and approached the vehicle.

“Someone was kicking at the windshield, and eventually there was a windshield that was cracked so one person seemed to be fighting to get out of the car,” Dixon said. “At that point, I tried to help by pulling back the windshield and give a bigger opening for the person to slide out.”

He couldn’t quite reach the other victim, who, according to Dixon, had no recollection of what happened.

According to police report, after Dixon assisted with pulling the occupants from the car, the driver of the vehicle fled the scene. Police are calling the incident a “hit-and-run crash.” The passenger was sent to Allegheny General Hospital for treatment of a lower body injury, of which the severity was not known.

Dixon said he sustained minor injuries to his hands and was treated in an ambulance on the scene as several others stopped at the scene to help the victims.

“I cut my hands on the glass,” he said. “They’re just little cuts, they’re nothing major.”

“I did what anybody else in Pittsburgh would’ve done given the situation,” Dixon said. “I just happened to be right there behind the car. I’m just happy that everyone seems to be all right.”