Nov 18, 2021 4 min read

The motorist who was struck by Richard Bower Jr. in a wrong-way crash near the Fayette County Fairgrounds last August said he was shocked that he survived after seeing the wreckage of his mangled SUV at a junkyard a couple of days later.

While the passenger side to Joshua Willard’s vehicle appeared to be mostly undamaged, the driver’s side where he was seated “looked like a monster truck drove over it” with the amount of damage to the front end.

“It was insane,” Willard said. “I was legit surprised I survived.”

Willard recounted the crash during a telephone interview Wednesday, a day after it was revealed that driving under the influence of alcohol charges against Bower Jr., who is the son of Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower Sr., were withdrawn by a special prosecutor.

Willard recalled leaving the Fayette County Fair just as it was wrapping up Aug. 7 and going to a convenience store in Dunbar Township to buy cigarettes before heading to work at Sweet Pea’s store near Uniontown. As he pulled out and turned to drive south on Route 119, which is a divided four-lane highway, he immediately noticed headlights on a northbound vehicle heading toward him in his lane.

“It’s obvious they were headlights. ‘They’re not supposed to be there. What the heck was that?’ Before I could wrap my head around what happened, it was too late,” Willard said of the impact with Bower Jr.’s SUV.

He said the crash happened so fast that he did not recall if he had time to brake. Willard suffered a scratched cornea to his right eye and an injury to his left shoulder that required him to briefly wear a sling. He was taken by ambulance to Uniontown Hospital for treatment, and state police also asked if they could draw blood to test for impairment.

Willard, 37, of Adah, said he has not heard from investigators since the day after the crash, and was surprised to learn that he may be facing charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance after reading a newspaper article. Police issued a media release four days after the crash indicating Willard would be charged, but nothing has been filed more than three months later. Lt. Jeffrey Schaffer, the state police commander at the Uniontown barracks, could not be reached for comment Wednesday on the status of the case.

Willard was also shocked to learn that two DUI charges against Bower Jr., 28, of Connellsville, were withdrawn during his Nov. 9 preliminary hearing. Tests on Bower Jr. showed his blood-alcohol was .172%, more than twice the legal limit to drive a vehicle. Sam Davis, the special prosecutor appointed by Bower Sr. to prosecute his son, said Tuesday that they withdrew the DUI charges, but added a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment, which will allow Bower Jr. to be eligible for accelerated rehabilitative disposition that would expunge the case from his record.

But Willard is now worried that he’s still under investigation and may face charges for a crash that he did not cause.

“They dropped his. If they try to come after me, then I’m going to sue,” Willard said. “I don’t care if you’re the queen of England, we’re all accountable for our actions. I’m going to wait to see how it plays out.”

However, Willard is happy that he does not have lingering health problems and that Bower Jr. was not injured in the crash.

Willard, who is an Army veteran and served two tours in Iraq, is now without a vehicle after it was totaled in the crash. His insurance gave him enough to pay off his SUV’s loan with a little left over, but he is saving up now to buy a new vehicle.

“I’m completely fine with that,” Willard said.

“I just need to save up to get it.”

It’s not clear if the state Attorney General’s office is looking into how the situation was handled or why Bower Sr. chose a Uniontown attorney to investigate rather than state prosecutors who are more accustomed to handling cases in which there is a conflict of interest. Bower Jr. is also a member of the county’s Bureau of Investigations, which is a unit within the district attorney’s office.