MORGANTOWN — The motorist whose vehicle crashed into a boulder that fell onto and across Monongahela Boulevard Monday was identified as a 65-year-old Morgantown woman.
Susan Cramer suffered severe injuries, according to Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston. Cramer is recovering from surgery at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital.
Cramer is in critical condition, according to Angela Jones-Knopf, corporate director of Media Relations and Public Affairs.
All injuries were initially reported to be minor by a city spokesperson.
It was discovered Cramer had “several broken bones, and internal injuries” once she was at the hospital, Preston said.
There were nine students — two of which were taken to the hospital — riding in the PRT car that struck a portion of the boulder after it went through a fence and landed on the PRT tracks, said John Bolt, West Virginia University spokesperson.
Bolt said he could not identify the two injured students.
Those students were extracted from the PRT car by the Morgantown Fire Department.
According to the MFD report on the incident, one of the PRT patients, Maceon Wheeler, was able to walk off the car.
The other, Chloe Bolin, had suspected fractures and the front of the car was cut away to make it easier to transfer her to a long board, over the wall and to a waiting EMS crew, the report said.
Both Wheeler and Bolin were listed in good condition on Tuesday, Jones-Knopf said.
Morgantown will play a limited role going forward as the incident did not happen on city property, Michaela Martin, Morgantown spokesperson said.
The Morgantown Police Department will work with WVU Police on traffic and safety issues, Martin said.
The MPD is preparing a crash report for Cramer’s collision, while WVU Police will prepare the report on the PRT crash, Preston said.
Bolt did not answer a question about what parts of the hill were WVU property but said the university is cooperating with all agencies, including the West Virginia Division of Highways and West Virginia Division of Transportation to “ascertain more information about all factors involved, including the integrity of the hillside.”
DOH spokesperson Brent Walker said the DOH has cleaned up the debris, working to reduce the size of the boulder for disposal and patched the areas of the road damaged by the rock fall.
Martin said the boulder fell from WVU property, but the hillside also involves a DOH right-of-way. She said figuring out the stability of that hill will take a cooperative agreement by WVU and the DOH.
Walker said WVU owned the hillside where the boulder fell and the DOH will meet with the university soon to “discuss the incident and assist in possible solutions.”
Boulders have fallen from that hill in the past but it is not a regular occurrence and doesn’t always result in a police response, Martin said.
Walker said the state’s hillsides have been saturated with rain over the past week and severe flooding, mudslides and rockslides have been reported around the state.
The rockslide was reported to the MPD at 3:37 p.m., Preston said.
Monongahela Boulevard was closed from Eighth Street to Patteson Drive until about 6:30 p.m.
