Man ends up in hospital bed after being good Samaritan

Todd Krut had just finished a 12-hour shift at Riverbend Foods — staying late to fix a broken conveyor — and was heading south on Interstate 79 to his home in Claysville about 2 a.m. Sunday.

As he was traveling through Collier toward Washington County, he saw a dark-colored Kia SUV pass him in the right lane, traveling well over 100 mph, Mr. Krut said.

Then, just ahead, the driver of the SUV lost control, crossed all three southbound lanes and careened into the guardrail in the median.

Mr. Krut, 54, pulled his blue 2016 Ford F-150 over — leaving it running with the lights on — to go help the other driver. That man, who appeared to be disoriented, asked Mr. Krut to drive him away. Mr. Krut refused and said he’d already called the police and then walked to the crashed SUV to make sure no one else was inside.

The SUV’s driver headed to Mr. Krut’s four-door truck.

“He jumped in my truck and took off,” Mr. Krut said.

He tried to stop him, but Mr. Krut’s hand got caught in the handle of the rear driver’s side door.

He was dragged about 100 feet down the middle of the highway.

“I don’t remember anything after that,” Mr. Krut said Monday from his bed at Allegheny General Hospital. “I don’t remember being dragged. I don’t remember the ambulance.”

Instead, he woke up about four hours later in the hospital.

Mr. Krut has broken bones in both feet, his right eye is swollen shut, he has what he described as “road rash” on his face and is in concussion protocol. His shoulders, he said, also were hurting.

“I’m scraped up from head to toe,” he said. “This is the things you get when you help people at 2 o’clock in the morning.”

Mr. Krut was mad that his truck was stolen but more upset that his wife and 15-year-old daughter had to worry about him.

“I just hope they find this guy,” he said.

State police said the driver who stole Mr. Krut’s truck took the Carnegie exit off the highway. Anyone with information on the driver or the location of the stolen truck, with Pennsylvania license plate ZFB6752, is asked to call the state police at 412-787-2000.

The crashed SUV had been stolen in Washington County, state police said.

Todd Krut of Claysville talks to reporters from his hospital bed Monday at Allegheny General Hospital. Mr. Krut, who works as a forklift repairman, was dragged down Interstate 79 early Sunday after he stopped to help a man who had just crashed.