Councilwoman says she reported icy road conditions before wreck

A driver was hospitalized after her Jeep flipped Thursday in Mount Washington, just hours after a Pittsburgh City Council member voiced concern over slippery roads there.

Icy conditions stemming from a water main leak are believed to have caused the Woodruff Street wreck about 11:30 p.m., Public Safety spokeswoman Alicia George said in a statement. The leak was reported in the 300 block, part of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s service area.

Councilwoman Theresa KailSmith said she alerted the city Department of Public Works to slick spots in that vicinity earlier Thursday, perhaps four or five hours before the crash.

“I was so upset,” Mrs. KailSmith said Friday, although she declined to speculate about the cause of the crash. “I knew I had just reported” the conditions.

The Jeep driver, identified by her family as Kellee Masucci, 30,

of Mount Washington, was taken to UPMC Mercy, Uptown. She was in stable condition Thursday night, Ms. George said. Her condition Friday wasn’t immediately available.

“PWSA takes this issue extremely seriously and is investigating its response to the break,” PWSA spokesman Will Pickering said in a statement. “When repairing a water main in cold weather, PWSA coordinates with city agencies on an ongoing basis to minimize road hazards that may be caused by icy conditions.”

Shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, the utility contacted the city’s emergency operations center about ice on Woodruff and asked that a public works crew treat the area, said Timothy McNulty, a spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto.

“A public works truck treated the site and notified EOC at 8:30 p.m. that it had completed the order,” Mr. McNulty said via email. “A check of the Snow Plow Tracker shows several treatments of the street throughout the past week up to and including [Thursday].”

The wreck followed a pledge by the Peduto administration this week to improve snow and ice removal amid an avalanche of resident complaints.

Mrs. Kail-Smith said conditions on Woodruff had been slippery as early as 6:30 or 7:30 p.m. Thursday. That’s roughly the time she drove through the hilly area, she said.

“It wasn’t so much that it was a sheet of ice. It was chunks of ice,” the councilwoman said.

She said she quickly contacted a public works supervisor and requested that someone be dispatched to the scene. At that point, Mrs. Kail-Smith said, it wasn’t clear whether the water was coming from melted snow or a broken utility pipe.

Her own vehicle slid, “but it was mostly [my fault] because I slowed down on the ice trying to see what was going on,” she said. Part of Woodruff Street was closed Friday as crews repaired two water mains, according to PWSA.

A road closure there began about 1 a.m. Friday, according to PWSA records cited by Mr. Pickering. It wasn’t immediately clear why the road wasn’t closed sooner.

Mrs. Kail-Smith said PWSA has faced several water line breaks every day amid the wintry weather, which can cause pipes to contract and expand.

“I’m sure they’re running from place to place,” the councilwoman said. “... They’re dealing with a lot.”