3 Dead After Christmas Day Crash in Centre County

Updated 7:45 p.m. Dec. 26

Three people died and three others were injured in a two-vehicle crash on Christmas Day in Howard Township, according to state police at Rockview.

Police had not yet released the identities of those involved in the head-on collision near Bald Eagle State Park, pending next of kin notifications. But in a message to the Keystone Central School District community on Friday, superintendent Frank Redmon wrote that a student at a KCSD elementary school and his parents were killed.

The boy’s sister, a student at Central Mountain Middle School, was flown from the scene with life-threatening injuries and remains in critical care. Another person in the same vehicle whose current condition has not been made public was also flown to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to police.

“Our hearts are broken for this family,” Redmon wrote. “On behalf of the Keystone Central School District, we extend our deepest condolences to everyone grieving this unimaginable loss. We also hold the surviving family member in our thoughts and prayers, hoping for strength and healing in the days ahead.”

The crash happened at about 2:25 p.m. Thursday on North Eagle Valley Road near Swartz Hollow Road in Howard Township. A 2009 Pontiac G6 and a 2012 Nissan Pathfinder were traveling in opposite directions when they both appear to have crossed the center line and collided, police wrote in a public information release.

Police said on Thursday that the driver and two passengers in the Pontiac died from injuries sustained in the crash and that two others were transported by helicopter. The driver of the Nissan was transported to a hospital to be treated for unknown injuries.

Autopsies on the boy and parents will be performed, according to the Centre County Coroner’s office.

North Eagle Valley Road/Route 150 was closed in the area of the crash — between Howard and the entrance to Bald Eagle State Park — for about five hours.

Both vehicles sustained heavy front-end damage and were towed from the scene.

State police, Howard Fire Company, Pleasant Gap EMS, Bellefonte EMS, Blanchard EMS, Mount Nittany Medical Center EMS, STAT MedEvac, Life Flight, Rich’s Towing and the Centre County Coroner’s Office responded.