By SANDRA K. REABUCK
SREABUCK@TRIBDEM.COM
EBENSBURG – A 20-year-old Cresson woman faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 28 on involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges in a traffic accident in which her two young passengers were killed in 2007.
State police have filed the charges against Beverly Ann Hughes, who was then 18, of the 200 block of Liberty Avenue.
The accident happened around 3:30 p.m. Sept. 5, 2007, along the Munster-Loretto Road in Munster Township.
The victims were 13-year-old Tyler Montgomery and 10-year-old Sydnie Estep, both of Cresson, who were middle school students in Penn Cambria School District. The two children and Hughes were cousins, authorities said at the time.
The driver allegedly had been joy-riding and traveling at a high rate of speed across elevated railroad tracks “to have fun with her two occupants,” Trooper Bruce Bocci said in a sworn affidavit.
The airborne vehicle crashed into a tree, killing both the front-seat passenger and the right rear-seat passenger.
Although it was reported that Hughes received minor injuries and had been taken to Memorial Medical Center, Bocci said in the affidavit that the woman had not been injured in the crash.
Both children, who were wearing seatbelts, died of blunt-force trauma, Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski said.
Hughes faces two involuntary manslaughter charges and one count of vehicular homicide. She also is charged with careless driving, driving across the elevated tracks at a speed greater than what can be maintained safely, driving at an unsafe speed, driving on the wrong side of the road and reckless driving.
The charges were filed before District Judge Galen Decort of Portage, who will hold the preliminary hearing.
While the charges do not estimate her speed at the time of the accident, the trooper said that the posted speed limit is 45 mph on the road with a recommended posted speed of 35 mph at the elevated tracks.
The deaths of the two young Cresson cousins left the community in shock.
Tyler was the son of Michael and Leah Estep Montgomery. Sydnie was the daughter of Allen and Mary E. Murray Estep.
Hughes, who is represented by Public Defender Kenneth Sottile, will be arraigned before the preliminary hearing. The prosecution’s case is being handled by Assistant District Attorney Wayne Langerholc.
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