Months have passed since the tragic incident on a Westmoreland County road took the life of a school van driver, but the wheels of justice are slowly turning. Isaac Stemple, 23, of Belington, W.Va., now faces severe legal consequences, charged with homicide by vehicle and two counts of recklessly endangering another person, along with multiple traffic violations related to the fatal March crash. Today, records revealed that Stemple has been charged, as per a report by WPXI.
The crash occurred when Stemple ran a red light while driving a tractor-trailer on State Route 22, subsequently hitting two vehicles. One of the victims, 60-year-old Rene Davis, did not survive the impact and was later declared dead from blunt force trauma to her head, neck, and torso. Thankfully, no students were in the van at the time of the collision. In the unfolding of this somber tale, a witness recounted to investigators that they saw the school van enter the intersection as the light turned green, only to be T-boned by the truck. They further monitored, as Davis' life was claimed in that intersection, an intersection where the light was red, but Stemple barreled through nonetheless, as chronicled by WTAE.
The glare of the sun was mentioned as a possible factor by Stemple when he explained that the sun was in his eyes just before the crash, causing him to reach for his sunglasses. This led to a crucial moment of inattention, "when he looked up, he claimed to see the traffic light, but not what color it was, and 'before he knew it there were was 2 cars in front of him,'" as per a description provided by WPXI. However, during the investigation, no mechanical issues were found with any of the vehicles involved, and it was determined that speed may not have played a significant role in the crash.
Despite the implications of the sun's position, authorities conducted a crash reconstruction, which suggested that the "sun would have been more centered behind the signals" at the time of the collision. This reconstruction is crucial, as it undermines Stemple's defense and aligns with witness testimonies that the traffic light was red. And yet, it was Stemple's failure "to stop at a steady red signal and entering the intersection while traffic was crossing," that led to the avoidable loss of Rene Davis, as detailed in the report by WPXI. Stemple now awaits the consequences of that fateful decision, held in the Westmoreland County Jail on a $100,000 unsecured bond.
