Pennsylvania K-9 Officer Killed in Head-On Accident

A Ligonier Township, Pa., police officer was killed early Saturday when a van traveling in the wrong direction on Route 30 struck his patrol vehicle head-on.

K-9 handler Lt. Eric A. Eslary of the Ligonier Township (Pa.) PD was killed Saturday in a traffic accident. (Photo: Screen Shot from WTAE TV)K-9 handler Lt. Eric A. Eslary of the Ligonier Township (Pa.) PD was killed Saturday in a traffic accident. (Photo: Screen Shot from WTAE TV) 

A Ligonier Township, Pa., police officer was killed early Saturday when a van traveling in the wrong direction on Route 30 struck his patrol vehicle head-on.

State police said Lt. Eric A. Eslary, 40, of Ligonier Township, died in the crash near Idlewild Park in Ligonier Township.

According to state police, around 1:45 a.m. Lt. Eslary was traveling west in a Ford Expedition while on patrol in the area of Clark Hollow Road when a commercial van traveling east in the westbound lane struck Lt. Eslary’s vehicle head-on.

Lt. Eslary was taken to Excela Latrobe Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:46 a.m.,the Westmoreland County coroner’s office told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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