Driver charged in deadly crash
State police charged a Kentucky man with vehicular homicide nearly two years after a three-vehicle crash at a busy intersection in Jefferson Borough killed one person and seriously injured two others.
Jonathan A. Tucker was driving a large pickup truck March 30, 2014, when state police said he ran a stop sign on Pine Street at Route 188, causing him to crash into a car driven by a Fayette County man, who died from his injuries two weeks later. Their vehicles careened into another pickup truck, injuring two other people, police said.
In addition to vehicular homicide, Tucker, 27, of Jenkins, Ky., was charged Thursday morning with two counts of aggravated assault by vehicle and three counts each of reckless endangerment and careless driving.
Erin L. Bookhardt, 72, of Hiller, died of blunt force trauma to the head and trunk April 13, 2014, while being treated for his injuries at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Police said Tucker was traveling south on Pine Street at nearly 50 miles per hour when he drove through the stop sign and crashed into Bookhardt’s car, which was traveling west on Route 188 and had the right-of-way. Bookhardt’s car then struck a pickup truck and ended up on its driver’s side leaning against a utility pole.
The people in the other pickup truck, Wiley Barnhart and Mary Barnhart, suffered numerous broken ribs in the crash, police said. Mary Barnhart also suffered a concussion, broken sternum and permanent paralysis of her right vocal cord.
Tucker told investigators at the scene he saw Bookhardt’s car at he approached Route 188, but that it felt as though his truck “was sucked into the intersection” before it impacted the car, according to court documents filed Thursday at District Glenn Bates’ office. Police did not elaborate on what Tucker meant by that statement.
A state police crash reconstruction team determined Tucker was driving at 49 miles per hour just before the crash. The posted speed limit in that area is 35 miles per hour.
Tucker, who was not injured in the crash, is awaiting arraignment on the charges.