DUNCANSVILLE - Officials are still investigating the cause of Tuesday's fatal crash that claimed the life of a Woodbury woman and sent multiple state corrections officers and inmates to Altoona Regional Trauma Center.
Five injured inmates were released Tuesday from the hospital and taken to State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove, Indiana County, superintendent's secretary Judy Smith said.
"The other five [inmates] are still under Cresson custody," Smith said. "Their officers are still manning the posts at the hospital for security purposes."
Hospital officials said they could not comment on the status of the inmates.
State police said Nicole E. Wagner, 27, was killed after her Chevrolet Impala rental car crossed the center line traveling east on Old Route 22 and struck a 2011 Chevrolet bus transporting two corrections officers and 10 prison inmates.
Please see obituary, Page A9
No new details on the crash were available Wednesday, said Trooper David McGarvey, a spokesman for the Hollidaysburg barracks. Witnesses said the woman was driving erratically and crossed the center line before the crash, McGarvey said at the crash scene Tuesday.
Wagner is survived by her two children - a daughter, Lainee Satara Sensenig, and son, Jacob Davis Sensenig - as well as her parents, Rick E. and Sue E. Wagner, and other family members.
Calls to the address listed for Rick Wagner were answered by a family relative who declined comment.
"She was such an awesome young lady. ... It's devastating to hear," Wagner's former professor Bill Rocks said.
The respiratory therapy program director at Allegany College of Maryland's Cumberland campus, Rocks said Wagner and her father, Rick, were exceptional students.
"She and her dad were both valedictorians of the same class, which is really something majorly unusual here at the college," he said. "She was such a delightful person. She was so genuine."
Wagner worked as a respiratory therapist at Altoona Regional after her graduation, according to Mirror archives. Her employment history was not immediately clear and Altoona Regional officials did not return calls for comment.
The driver of the van, Timothy J. Taranto, 57, of Northern Cambria and the other officer, who was not identified by officials, were both released from the hospital Tuesday, police said.
Both officers were placed on administrative leave and are scheduled to return to work Thursday, Smith said. The officers were transferring the inmates from SCI Smithfield to SCI Pine Grove in Indiana County at the time of the crash, Smith said.
"Our officers were on top of their game and handled themselves professionally," Smith said.
Officials from SCI Cresson have been very helpful after the crash, she said.
A funeral service for Wagner will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at S. Gerald Weaver Funeral Home, Woodbury.
Mirror Staff Writer Zach Geiger is at 946-7535.
