A car accident can change the course of many people’s lives in an instant. For two men in Pennsylvania, a car accident did just that. In late 2009, a man lost his wife and son in a car crash after another vehicle struck theirs. The driver of the other vehicle, who also has a family, was trying to pass the man’s car in a no-passing zone.
The driver of the other car struck the man’s vehicle and forced it off the road and straight into a tree. As a result, the man’s wife and son were both severely injured and died soon after. Now the other driver has been convicted of vehicular manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and involuntary manslaughter for the 2009 car accident.
According to investigators, the driver lost control of his vehicle and overcorrected which caused him to strike the man’s vehicle. And though the driver was not charged with drunk driving, he did admit to having alcohol before the accident occurred.
The driver denied the charges against him and maintains that the incident was, in fact, an accident. However, the jury decided that he had been driving recklessly and knowingly took risks on the road by passing in a no-passing zone. Therefore it was not an accident and he was responsible for the crash.
Though the sentencing hearing has not occurred yet, the driver may spend the next seven years in prison. But even if the driver was given the maximum sentence, the fatal car accident can never be reversed.
Source: Bucks County Courier Times online, “Driver guilty in crash that killed mom, son,” Laurie Mason Schroeder, 01 February 2011