A former University student died Sunday night in a car accident one day after he helped rescue a Boy Scout who had fallen 40 feet and was stuck in a cave.

Albert "Butch" Brumbaugh, who was a student at the University's Delaware County campus, died at 11:16 Sunday night after the car he was driving northbound on Interstate 95 near Chester drifted into the median and struck a guard rail, sending it into the air. The car landed on its roof and skidded 85 feet before slamming into a concrete abutment, state police in Media said.

Brumbaugh, 21, of Essington, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they do not know what caused Brumbaugh's 1988 Dodge Aries to veer into the median.

Just a day before, Brumbaugh and a group of friends helped rescue Troy Crothers, 12, of Delta, after he fell about 40 feet in a Pleasant Gap cave.

Mike Campese (junior-electrical engineering), who was in the cave with Brumbaugh, said Brumbaugh's accident "was a pretty shitty end for the weekend," and added softly, "but that's life." Campese and Brumbaugh graduated from high school together.

Campese said he thinks Brumbaugh dropped his girlfriend off and fell asleep at the wheel of his car.

Brumbaugh, Campese and two other friends were spelunking Saturday in the same Pleasant Gap cave as Troy's Boy Scout troop.

Troy fell after he tried to pick up his flashlight or some batteries. After the fall, which Troy does not remember, he began bleeding from the back of his head.

"When I first saw him there was blood everywhere," Campese said. "I was shitting a brick. It was pretty scary."

Brumbaugh, Campese and the two other friends found Troy and bandaged him, Campese said. Brumbaugh removed his shirt and used it to bandage Troy's head.

"That shirt helped my head stop to bleed for a little while," Troy said.

Out of fear of further injuring the boy, they did not move him, Campese said, adding no one in the group was trained in first aid.

Five spelunkers who were not part of Brumbaugh's or Troy's groups arrived to help Troy. Three from this group then left the cave to get help. After they left, Campese and the others talked and asked Troy questions to keep him conscious.

"We just wanted to get the boy stable," Campese said, adding Troy was shaking when they found him.

Pleasant Gap firefighters soon arrived and Campese relayed information about the fall to them.

With the help of Nittany Grotto, a society for spelunkers, firefighters were able to remove Troy, who was fully conscious, from the cave.

Campese, who had been in that cave eight times, helped get the other scouts from the troop out of the cave.

Despite his actions Saturday, Campese said he is not a hero.

"I don't think we were heroes," he said. "We just reacted like anyone else would have."

Troy's mother, Jane Crothers, said her son wouldn't talk about his accident until he woke up yesterday morning and talked to reporters. He remembered being cold but not scared, and he still does not remember the fall, Crothers said.

After hearing Brumbaugh had died, Troy said, "He did a lot of hard work," and began asking questions about his rescuer.