CLEVELAND TOWNSHIP - A Massachusetts couple and their four grandchildren were safe and smiling as they stood along Hemlock Road Monday morning near Lake Glory Campground, happy to have escaped without injury when their RV and the car it was towing slid off the road and down a 10-foot embankment.
The crash occurred about 10:30 a.m., when Daniel Thompson moved his 31-foot-long R-Vision Condor toward the berm of the narrow road to make room for an oil truck approaching from the other direction, according to Locust Township Police.
Thompson was able to laugh while he recalled how his grandchildren, ages 3 to 7, sat sideways in their car seats after the RV tipped on its side and came to rest in trees. The car had flipped completely to its roof.
The family was heading back to Hyannis, Mass., after a weekend at Knoebels Amusement Resort, which owns the campground about five miles from the park. Knoebels' personnel tried to help make the best of a bad situation, sending a bus and golf cart to the area of the crash to bring the family back to the park while the Thompsons waited for their daughter to make a six-hour trip from Connecticut to pick them up.
"They just did us a favor of spending time at our campground and park," Joe Muscato, director of public relations at Knoebels, said about the family. "We wanted to do what we could to take care of them."
They were provided with a cottage with a phone, a television and air conditioner as a place to "unwind and relax," Muscato said.
No one's fault
Thompson, 62, steered to the right when he saw the oil truck approaching, police said, but his vehicle went off the narrow berm and tilted to its side as it slid down the embankment. Thompson and his wife, Virginia, 62, were wearing their seat belts, and all six passengers exited through the driver side door.
John Brokenshire, assistant township police chief, responded, as did rescue personnel from Valley Chemical Fire Co., Numidia. The driver of the truck, who was not identified by police, stopped and assisted, police said.
"It wasn't the truck driver's fault. They both gave up a little too much of the road," said Patrolman Nick Thorpe, who was on duty at the Locust Township police station Monday afternoon. "The RV was in a bad spot to do so."
No charges will be filed against either driver, he said.
Hemlock Road, only about a half-mile long, connects Eisenhower and Ashton Hollow roads midway between Elysburg and Catawissa.
Helping hand
The scene was cleared at approximately 3:30 p.m. after the RV was pulled back to the road by a tow truck from West End Towing, Bloomsburg.
Thompson said the family came to the area on Friday specifically to have the children enjoy a weekend at Knoebels.
Muscato said Knoebels employees are often repairing customers' flat tires, jumping their stalled cars or helping to repair minor damage to vehicles.
"It's not common for people to flip their vehicles over leaving here," he said, "but it's not out of character for us (to help)."