The New Jersey couple on way to their wedding.
Jaspreet Singh Chahal, a 24-year-old truck driver from Fresno, California, has been charged with vehicular homicide. The accident involved a crash that killed a New Jersey couple driving to their wedding in Pittsburgh late last year.
The Pennsylvania State Police has issued an arrest warrant against Chahal, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. The driver has been pressed with other charges, too, such as careless and reckless driving and careless endangering.
The accident happened on November 14, 2018, at Interstate 78. The crash lead to fiery collision and the couple, on their way to wedding, lost their lives in the accident.
The accident involved five tractor-trailers and a sedan and killed 35-year-old Kathryn Schurtz of Jersey City, New Jersey and her fiance, 42-year-old Joseph Kearney. The two were on their way to Pittsburgh, where they were to get married in a few days. As Chahal remains at-large, the primary objective in the case for now remains to find him.
Chahal, who was driving an 18-wheeler truck, has been held responsible for the crash. The charges were pressed after a seven-month-long investigation into the case.
Chahal also failed to see traffic signage and pushed into the couples’ vehicle. The accident lead to a pile-up of five tractor-trailers. The crash was so intense that the couple’s car and two other tractor-trailers caught fire instantly.
According to the Reading Eagle, the police in Berks County allege that the driver was on a cell phone while driving and thus distracted. Talking on phone while driving a commercial vehicle is illegal in Pennsylvania. The driver also could not see the traffic stopping in front of him and struck another vehicle.