<a onClick="window.open('/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=jpg::::/sites/dl/free/0073511935/535066/Spectacular_Crash_p1.jpg','popWin', 'width=NaN,height=NaN,resizable,scrollbars');" href="#"><img valign="absmiddle" height="16" width="16" border="0" src="/olcweb/styles/shared/linkicons/image.gif"> (20.0K)</a> Daniel P. Creighton, The Mercury Crash Aftermath: Volunteers Help

NORTH COVENTRY—A car driven by a Jersey City, N.J., man traced an improbable path Sunday, launching airborne from northbound Route 100 and striking two vehicles in the southbound lanes before landing on its roof and bursting into flames. The man, Jorge Santiago, 33, ended up pinned in his burning car, and was hurriedly removed by other motorists before fire engulfed the vehicle. No other people were injured, though two cars and two bicycles in their carrying racks were damaged.

Santiago broke both of his legs and sustained a concussion, but he never lost consciousness and appeared calm and aware of his surroundings before Goodwill Ambulance transported him to Brandywine Hospital, according to a paramedic who happened upon the scene prior to official emergency personnel.

"He was responsive," said Gail Whitman of Sanatoga. "It's amazing he wasn't hurt more."

Santiago remained in critical but stable condition Sunday night, a Brandywine spokeswoman said.

Shortly after 3 p.m., witnesses said, Santiago's Mitsubishi Eclipse struck the abutment of the Route 422 overpass at a high rate of speed and began an estimated 250-foot flight over the concrete divider before it hit one vehicle, and then another.

"I looked up and I saw him flipping through the air and coming at me head-first," said John Pender, of Havertown. "He hit us and he slid."

"I thought it was a camper that hit the (overpass), and then I saw it was a car flying," said Arlene Kulp of Perkiomenville, who was traveling just ahead of Pender. "I couldn't believe it."

Pender was driving in the right lane on Route 100 southbound when Santiago struck his Buick Park Avenue on the passenger's side.

After attending a reunion brunch at Sunnybrook for Pottstown High School's Class of 1944, Pender and his wife, Marie, passed through his old neighborhood and swung from King Street onto Route 100, heading for the ramp to Route 422 East.

But before they reached the exit, Santiago came into their field of view from a seemingly impossible angle. He first clipped a Mercedes station wagon driven by Betsy Cirillo of Gladwyne.

"It hit (my car) in the back first," said Cirillo, who was taking three children bicycling in St. Peter's Village. "He bounced off me and then hit somebody else."

"I really don't understand it," John Pender said. "It happened so fast. He hit that wall and he flipped."

"It was so quick," Marie Pender said.

"My wife hollered: 'Somebody's in that car, John. You've got to get him out.'"

John Pender went to Santiago's aid and was shortly joined by others, including Lance Foss of Gilbertsville and Tony Fassano of Trappe.

"If the car wasn't on fire, we wouldn't have moved him," said Foss, who was on his way home from the nearby Coventry Mall. "We were afraid we'd have a guy burnt instead of a guy badly hurt."

"The car was really on fire at the time," Fassano said. "It was getting really hot."

Limerick Fire Co. volunteers responded and began extinguishing the vehicle fire. Personnel from the Goodwill and North Coventry fire companies also responded, interrupting a joint training exercise.

Because of the crash, police closed Route 100 near Route 422 until about 7 p.m.

(Reprinted with permission; ©1998 The Mercury.)