PARADISE TOWNSHIP -- Three Pocono Mountain East football players on their way home from practice were in a car crash Tuesday in Monroe County. Two of them are in critical condition.
State police believe speed played a role in a crash that injured the three players.
Troopers say the crash happened around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday near Scotrun, less than two miles from the school, as they were leaving from football practice.
In pictures taken by emergency crews, you can see the car severed in two pieces and those two pieces crushed by the force of the impact.
"The only thing going through my mind was 'Oh, my God,'" said Daniel Van Horn.
Van Horn is the caretaker of the property where the crash took place. He said he was about to eat dinner when the crash happened.
"It sounded like a muffled explosion. All I heard was a loud 'boom.' In my mind it didn't' sound right."
Van Horn went outside to see what happened.
"When I looked around the corner, I could see the debris of the stone column laying, part of a car, it looked like."
Pictures from the Pocono Mountain Regional EMS Facebook page give a more detailed look at the crash scene.
Troopers believe speed played a factor when the driver lost control of his car on Bush Road. There are still skid marks on that road.
Troopers say the car hit some rocks and went airborne and crashed into two trees. Both trees are scraped from the impact. The car then severed into two pieces.
"I immediately went to the driver's side. The door was not on the car. There was nobody in the driver's seat. There was a young gentleman sitting in the passenger seat," said Van Horn.
He said the passenger was unconscious and another person was in the back seat, awake, and in pain. But the driver, Van Horn says, was underneath the car.
"Just seeing the car, the whole front end missing, I thought, I was scared I was going to see a fatality."
One of the passengers, Michael Kenosky, has been released from the hospital.
The other two Pocono Mountain East High School football players are still in critical condition.
People close to the team said they are Steven Dienno and Justin Bullock. They are being treated at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Saint Luke's.
State police will be reconstructing the scene next week.