GIRARDVILLE, Pa. — A video showing two ducks being run over by a pickup truck in Schuylkill County has sparked outrage online, but the man behind the wheel says the clip doesn't tell the full story.
Ducks are a welcome sight along C Street in Girardville. Neighbor Ron Zangari says they love swimming in the nearby creek, and they're always friendly.
"It's like they're the old ladies walking down the street. They're all together, and they hang out, and they come down to eat, and I usually have a bowl of seed here or something," Zangari said.
But Tuesday night, Zangari says tragedy struck.
"One neighbor came up and told me that someone had hurt the ducks up here, and they didn't know what happened. There were two ducks laying dead in the middle of the road."
The neighbor asked Zangari if he had captured the moment on his garage security camera.
"So I rewound it and found out that a truck had hit them."
The footage shows three ducks walking in the street before a red pickup truck is seen passing over, killing two of them instantly. The pickup applies the brakes while driving out of the camera's view before the video cuts off. It turns out that red truck belongs to Frank Zangari, longtime Girardville fire chief. The chief didn't want to talk on camera but confirmed that it was his truck that hit the ducks.
Chief Zangari is Ron's cousin.
"I'm not trying to bash the man; he's a very good man. He's done a lot for this town. He's done a lot for the fire company, but it's an unfortunate thing that happened. I was shocked to see that he just kept going. It wasn't like they ran out underneath him. They were out in the middle of the road quite a while before he even got here. He had to have seen them."
Frank Zangari spoke off-camera, saying he was just leaving his home in his red pickup truck. He had stooped down into the passenger seat to pick up his briefcase, and that's when he says he heard a thump.
He says he hit the brakes, stopped, and looked back in the rearview mirror to see those ducks lying in the road. What he says the video does not show is immediately after he circled the block and came back. He's devastated by what happened, saying he fed them routinely.
The chief tells Newswatch 16 he and his son went to check on the ducks right away, but Ron says they were still in the roadway, and it was a neighbor who he says buried the ducks under some trees next to the road.
"People said he came back later. He came back much later, but he didn't realize it was him that hit them. That's why the neighbor asked me to go and look on the video camera to see who hit them. He didn't say he hit them. I'm not trying to villainize the person that did it. It was just a bad situation. It's very upsetting," Zangari said.
On Wednesday, the remaining duck returned, following his normal routine all alone.
"He's the survivor from yesterday. Hopefully, he will bring some of his buddies back, and we will have more.
Ron is encouraging Girardville residents to be careful on the roads and look out for his feathered friends.