Anthony Stephen Chianese

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Anthony Stephen Chianese
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Age: 21

Location:
south of Neidehiser road
Route 981 - Mt Pleasant Blvd
Pittsburgh , PA
United States

 

A ghost bike was installed by fellow riders who didn't know Anthony, but who ride this loop often.

from the Tribune Review:

 Bicycle collides with truck in Mt. Pleasant
Township; man dies

By A.J. Panian
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, April 8, 2010

 

Anthony Chianese was leaving the Mt. Pleasant Township home of
Virginia Shunk on Tuesday after eating dinner there when he told her
something she said she will always remember.

"I told him to be careful. He said, 'Grandma, love you.' He wasn't my
grandson, but I sure loved him like he was," said Shunk, 75, of Kors
Studio Road in Upper United, who provided Chianese with a place to live
since November. "I'll take that with me the rest of my life."

Anthony Stephen Chianese, 21, died early Wednesday as a result of
injuries sustained when the bicycle he was riding on Route 981 collided
head on with a 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck driven by Paul Santucci, 52,
of Mammoth, state police said.

He was riding north in the road's southbound lane for unknown reasons
when the crash occurred at about 5:50 a.m., said Greensburg state
police Trooper Michael Laird.

Santucci was driving in the road's southbound lane just south of
Boyer Road when he came upon Chianese and attempted to swerve and stop
to avoid a collision, Laird said.

The front bumper of Santucci's truck hit Chianese's bike, throwing
him about 60 feet south and into a guide rail, Laird said.

Chianese was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:49 a.m. by
Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner John Ackerman.

The cause of death was multiple blunt-force trauma, and the manner of
death was accidental, Ackerman said. No autopsy is planned, but
toxicology tests are pending on Chianese.

"There were multiple witnesses at the scene, including the driver of a
vehicle traveling behind the pickup truck," Ackerman said.

Shunk and other longtime friends of Chianese -- a 2007 Mt. Pleasant
Area High School graduate -- were nearly as puzzled as they were
griefstricken by news of his death.

"I have absolutely no clue why he would have been out that way," said
Rhode Shunk, 21, Virginia Shunk's grandson, who owned the bike Chianese
was riding when he died.

Chianese had previously lived with 82-year-old Earl Saville of nearby
Larkspur Circle in the Norvelt-Calumet area, whom he met through the
Shunk family.

"The Shunk kids cut my grass for me, and that's how I met Anthony. He
needed a place to stay last summer, and I sort of took him in," Saville
said. "He had no place else to go."

Chianese began living at Saville's home in June and remained there
until November. In September, Chianese became employed with a roofing
company in Greensburg.

He was laid off from that job late last year, Saville said, after
which he moved into Shunk's home.

"That's a shame, to be gone at 21 years old. I feel sad he's gone. I
just tried to help him out," Saville said.

Chianese did not have a car to drive because he had little money,
said Rhode's father, Paul Shunk.

"Anthony also lived with us through his 11th- and 12th-grade years of
high school," Paul Shunk said. "He was a good kid. This is a terrible
thing."

No members of Chianese's immediate family could be contacted
yesterday, and funeral arrangements appear to be incomplete.

The investigation is continuing, Laird said.