Police: Driver in fatal I-70 crash was driving 118 mph
Fayette City man charged with vehicular homicide for Allenport woman’s death
State police say a Fayette City man was driving 118 mph moments before he crashed into the rear of an Allenport woman’s car on Interstate 70 in Westmoreland County earlier this year, killing her after her car burst into flames.
Jacob M. Posey, 22, was charged Friday with felony homicide by vehicle and several summary counts in connection with the March 16 crash in Rostraver Township that killed 25-year-old Tori Demo while she was on her way to work.
Witnesses saw Posey’s pickup truck driving erratically when he got on I-70 at the Arnold City exit and sped off heading east on the highway before striking Demo’s car about a half-mile later. The impact caused her vehicle to roll over multiple times and catch fire, police said.
One witness said he saw Posey driving erratically on Harmony Church Road before entering the highway and quickly accelerating, reaching speeds of more than 100 mph, police said. Another driver said he saw Posey’s pickup truck “flying and going way too (expletive) fast” just before he crashed into Demo’s car as she was trying to get into the right lane, according to court documents.
Both witnesses tried to help Demo, who according to investigators was “alive, breathing and moaning” while seated behind the wheel, but the vehicle caught fire and they were unable to get her out of the car. Demo died at the scene from smoke inhalation and severe burns across her body, and also suffered “significant” blunt force trauma during the crash, an autopsy revealed.
Posey stopped his pickup truck about a quarter-mile from the crash site, but did not go back to the scene in an attempt to render aid, police said. When speaking with investigators, he estimated he was driving about 70 mph when the crash occurred, and claimed Demo had moved into his lane. However, a review of the onboard data recorder in Posey’s pickup truck showed that he was traveling 118 mph – more than double the 55 mph speed limit in that area – moments before the crash, according to court documents.
“The operator was traveling in an extreme excess of the speed limit prior to this collision,” state police wrote in the charging documents.
The crash closed the interstate in both directions for several hours while police investigated and emergency responders removed wreckage from the scene.
Relatives of Demo previously said she had just dropped her mother off at a beauty salon in the Mon Valley about 8 a.m. that day and was heading to a cleaning job in Uniontown. The 2017 graduate of California Area High School had recently joined the Roscoe Lions Club just before her death, family members said.
Posey was arraigned Friday by District Judge John Christner on the homicide by vehicle charge and released on $50,000 unsecured bond. His preliminary hearing before Christner is tentatively scheduled for July 29 at 10:15 a.m. Posey’s defense attorney William Brandstetter politely declined comment Monday.