Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Driver Who Plunged into Connoquenessing Creek is Seneca Valley Teacher

The 48-year-old is in critical condition at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh.

Zelienople police have identified the driver who plunged into the Connoquenessing Creek Sunday night.

Police Chief Jim Miller said 48-year-old Henry Stefanacci is in critical condition at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. The Zelienople resident was flown by medical helicopter to the hospital after firefighters rescued him from his vehicle, which was submerged upside down in the creek near the canoe launch.

Seneca Valley spokeswoman Linda Andreassi said Stefanacci, who is known by Leo, is a special education teacher at the Seneca Valley Middle School in Jackson Township.

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"We were saddened to learn this morning of his car accident and extend our thoughts and prayers to him for a full recovery," Andreassi said.

Miller said Stefanacci was driving north on Halstead Boulevard when he lost control of the car at a bend in the road and skidded into the water.

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Police are still investigating what caused Stefanacci to leave the pavement, he said. Although there were snow showers Sunday evening, the road, located behind an industrial park, was not icy, he said.

“The roads didn’t appear to be bad,” Miller said.

Miller said two young men driving on Halstead Boulevard on their way to Burger King  in Harmony happened to notice car tracks in the snow leading to the creek. The men stopped, got out of their pickup truck and, after seeing the car in the creek, dialed 9-1-1.

Zelienople Fire Chief Rob Reeb said firefighters responding to the scene at about 9:20 p.m. did not see footprints near the banks of the creek. The overturned car was almost completely submerged in the water.  

“Everybody got really quiet. Then we could hear someone calling out to us,” he said.

Reeb said he did not know how long Stefanacci was in the water before firefighters arrived.

“He was coherent, but he wasn’t communicating in a way that made sense,” Reeb said of the driver, who was conscious when first responders pulled him from the vehicle. “He had been in there a while.”

Reeb estimated it took firefighters from Team 300, Butler County’s water rescue team, about 15 minutes to rescue Stefanacci from the vehicle after arriving at the scene. Members of the Beaver Falls and Unionville dive teams also were called to the area as backup.

Stefanacci was one of several male middle school teachers to participate in the to benefit the March of Dimes last May. After agreeing to wear a "classic" mustache on his face, Stefanacci earned laughs by being the only teacher to claim he liked his new facial hair.

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Do you know Leo Stefanacci? Share your well wishes for his recovery in the comment section below.

Click the video to watch as Stefanacci car is towed from the water.

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