March 12th, 2014 by WCBC Radio
WILLIAMSPORT, MD. – Maryland State Police troopers are investigating a three vehicle crash which resulted in two fatalities late yesterday morning on I-81.
Just after 11:20 AM Tuesday, several 911 calls were received about a vehicle crash on northbound I-81 just south of Exit 2 (US 11-Williamsport), with reports that one or more vehicles were on fire. Troopers and local fire and EMS departments, assisted by a sheriff’s deputy, arrived on the scene within minutes and found two vehicles engulfed in fire. One of
those vehicles, a Jeep Liberty, had two occupants who were entrapped in the vehicle by crash damage. Fire crews aggressively attacked the fire, but the two occupants were found to be deceased after the fire was extinguished.
The investigation revealed that the 2004 Jeep, in the left lane, had quickly slowed along with other traffic due to a backup related to road construction.
Joshua P. Largent, 28, of Martinsburg, WV, driving a 2010 Ford F350 pickup truck, failed to notice the backed up traffic ahead. His truck crashed into the rear of the Jeep, and the impact caused the Jeep to immediately
erupt into flames and forced it into a guardrail along edge of the center median. The F350 then struck the rear of a 1994 Chevrolet Blazer, driven by 48 year old Eric F. Funk of Hagerstown, which was traveling slowly in the right lane, and forced the Blazer into several small trees along
the right roadside. The F350 came to rest near the Jeep, and the intense fire in the Jeep caused the F350 to also catch fire. Both vehicles were destroyed by fire.
The drivers of the Ford F350 and the Chevrolet Blazer declined transport to the hospital. The occupants of the Jeep Liberty, driver Joseph A. Digiovanni, 69, and his wife, 68 year old Esther Digiovanni, of Falling Waters, WV, the front seat passenger, were killed on impact and
pronounced deceased at the scene. They were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore.
The crash remains under investigation by troopers from the MSP Hagerstown Barrack and reconstructionists from the State Police Crash Team. Northbound I-81 was closed from the time of the crash until approximately 4:00 PM, and northbound traffic was detoured by volunteer fire police and State Highway Administration personnel off at Exit 1 (Md 68-Williamsport), onto
Governor Lane Blvd, US 11, and back onto I-81.
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