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Family talks about local man killed in turnpike crash

MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP, Pa. – UPS has confirmed that two of its drivers traveling out of Harrisburg were among the 5 that were killed in a crash that clo...
MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP, Pa. - UPS has confirmed that two of its drivers traveling out of Harrisburg were among the 5 that were killed in a crash that closed an 86-mile stretch of the turnpike in Westmoreland County Sunday.  FOX 43 spoke with the family member of one of the victims who lived in our area.

"He was a pretty cheerful guy actually," Dustin Kepner of Camp Hill, Cumberland County, said. "He was pretty fun."

Dustin is the nephew of 53-year-old Daniel Kepner. Kepner, from Lewistown, Mifflin County, was one of the people killed in Sunday's crash on the turnpike in Western Pennsylvania. A 9-year-old girl was also killed, and at least 60 others were taken to the hospital.

Dustin said hid uncle will be remembered as a family man.

"My favorite thing about the summers was going up," Dustin said. "And he always had some little tid-bit about how to live your life and stuff and always helped me get through rough times. He treated me like one of his own."

Kepner and a fellow UPS driver, 48-year-old Dennis Kehler, of Lebanon, died at the scene of the crash.

According to state police, the crash happened around 3:30 in the morning Sunday. A tour bus was heading from Rockaway, New Jersey to Cincinnati, Ohio. The driver, a 58-year-old man from New York, was traveling in the left lane on the turnpike near the New Stanton exit, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, when he struck the middle barrier.

The bus went up a hill, then rolled over back onto the roadway. It landed on both sides of the highway. The driver was thrown out of his seat.

Three trucks, including Kepner and Kehler's UPS delivery truck, as well as a car crashed into the bus. Police said many of the passengers were Japanese and Spanish-speaking tourists.

As for Kepner's family, they said he was a man that was always true to his word.

"Everything I say about him I do mean," Dustin said. "He did treat me very well and his family doesn't deserve this."

The three other people who died, including one child, were from New York. It is unclear if weather played a role in the crash.

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