Rescuers rushed a woman to a trauma center by helicopter yesterday evening after one car smashed into another at the intersection of North Atherton Street and Pollock Road.

Police declared the area a crime scene and marked it off with yellow tape.

The two cars involved were a maroon Chrysler LeBaron, which suffered damage to both sides, and a green Mazda MX-6, which suffered damage to the front and the passenger side.

The woman, who was in the Chrysler, was the only victim taken to a hospital, said Tracy Dietrich, an assistant chief for the Alpha Fire Company.

Damage to the Chrysler was so severe that Alpha rescuers had to slice off the roof with Jaws of Life equipment.

Two witnesses said they saw men run from the Mazda after the accident, but police forbade them from saying anything more to a reporter.

One man was sitting in a police car at the scene. A police officer said the man was the owner of the Mazda, but that he was not present when the accident happened and was not under arrest.

Rescuers were called to the scene at 6:31 p.m., Dietrich said.

Emergency workers closed Atherton Street between West College Avenue and Park Avenue and blocked off several surrounding streets.

More than an hour later, police investigators were taking photographs and jotting notes under a light beamed from the top of an Alpha ladder truck.

"What we're doing is providing light for the reconstructive crew," Dietrich said.

After the victim was freed from the Chrysler, members of the Alpha Ambulance Company treated her and put her in an ambulance, Dietrich said. They drove her about a block to the Life Flight helicopter landing site; an open parking lot on Penn State's West Campus.

Both the State College Police Department and Penn State Police Services were on the scene.

Police had released no further information late last night.