North Lebanon Township man dies after truck hits building in Cleona, police say

A North Lebanon Township man was killed in a single-vehicle crash Monday morning in Cleona Borough, police said.

David Rittle Jr., 38, died after the cement truck he was driving struck a building on North Center Street, according to a release issued Tuesday by Police Chief Jeffrey J. Farneski.

According to the release, police were dispatched to the scene at approximately 8:58 a.m. when they received a report of a truck into a structure with rollover. Police arrived on scene within a minute, the release said.

When they arrived, the cement truck was on its side, and the operator – later identified as Rittle – was partially ejected from the vehicle.

First responders removed Rittle from the truck and administered CPR at the scene, the release said. First Aid and Safety Patrol then arrived on scene and took over life-saving measures, and Rittle was transported to Hershey Medical Center for treatment.

Police said they were notified by the Dauphin County Coroner’s office on Tuesday that Rittle had died at Hershey Medical Center.

Investigators said Rittle was operating a truck owned by Collins Trucking Inc. out of Lebanon. The Mack truck, used for transporting a cement mix, was traveling on Tunnel Hill Road, which becomes North Center Street in Cleona, where it left the roadway and struck a building.

According to a report Monday in Lancaster Farming, the structure struck by the truck was a scale shed on a 106-acre farm owned by Lancaster Farming columnist Sue Bowman. The scale shed, built around 1901, had to come down because of the damage, the report said.

North Center Street was closed for several hours after the accident, according to the police report.