Emergency crews on the scene at Wednesday's fatal accident in Caernarvon Township. Matthew McNamara, the driver of the SUV (right) was charged with vehicular homicide while driving under the influence.
A Delaware County man was drunk when he caused a high-speed crash Wednesday that killed a woman and critically injured a preteen girl, police allege.
State police on Friday charged Matthew McNamara with homicide by vehicle while DUI, three other felonies and a list of traffic violations in relation to the crash on Route 322 in Caernarvon Township.
McNamara's blood-alcohol level was .17 percent — more than twice the legal limit — when his vehicle struck a car head-on while making an illegal pass, according to an affidavit.
An out-of-county couple and three children in the other car were returning home from purchasing a puppy in Lancaster, investigators said.
A front-seat passenger, Syheran Cerdan, 23, of Ardmore, was killed. She wasn't wearing a seat belt; investigators said wearing one likely wouldn't have saved her.
"Crimes like this are so avoidable, so selfish and so stupid," Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said Friday. "Do not drink and drive."
The puppy was on Cerdan's lap when McNamara's sport utility vehicle hit the car in which she was riding, investigators said. The puppy was killed.
The driver of the car, Joseph Wesley of Bryn Mawr, wasn't seriously hurt.
An 11-year-old girl who was riding in the rear passenger seat of the car sustained multiple broken bones and severe head trauma, according to a police affidavit. She was in stable but critical condition Friday night at Hershey Medical Center, according to investigators.
"It's a horrible set of circumstances that absolutely could have been prevented," said Assistant District Attorney Todd Brown, who approved charges of homicide by vehicle while DUI, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI (two counts), homicide by vehicle, DUI and four traffic offenses.
McNamara, 45, of Springfield, is in Lancaster County Prison on $100,000 bail.
He admitted that he had been drinking prior to the crash, an affidavit shows.
He was driving west on Route 322 in a 55-mph zone when he tried to pass a car over a double-yellow line, the affidavit states. His SUV struck Wesley's Ford Focus, with the car's front passenger side sustaining the brunt of the impact.
Two boys, ages 4 and 3 months, also were in Wesley's car and sustained minor injuries. They were treated at Reading Hospital and released, investigators said.
"Our main hope at this point is that there is no further loss of life and that the survivors are able to make full recoveries," Stedman said.
McNamara was convicted of DUI in 1989 in his home county, court records show.
He was driving Wednesday with a suspended license, police allege.
Staff writer Bernard Harris contributed to this report.
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