Accident

DONTA CRADDOCK and Ivan Rodriguez were brought to tears Wednesday afternoon upon hearing that they had been found guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and would spend the rest of their lives in state prison. "Sorry, Mom, for letting you down and everything. Even though I'm going to be in for the rest of my life, I'm sorry," Craddock, 21, softly said from the wheelchair he has been confined to since the fatal car crash he caused while fleeing a robbery scene on June 10, 2009.

A railroad worker was killed today when he was crushed by an 1,800-pound roll of newsprint at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News Schuylkill Printing Plant in Upper Merion. Mark Block, a spokesman for Philadelphia Media Network, the newspapers' parent company, said the roll apparently had shifted in its boxcar during shipment and fell out about 9:30 a.m. when the train's engineer opened the door. Jefferson L. Troester, 43, of Claymont, Del., was employed by the Brandywine Valley Railroad Co. Block said PMN officials were saddened to learn of Troester's death at the plant on River Road.

A mother and son whose car stalled in the middle of busy Route 309 in Montgomery County were killed when an SUV slammed into their car Monday afternoon. "They never knew what hit them," said Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman. Pennsylvania State Police said the 2000 Lincoln Town Car broke down in the center lane of the northbound side of Route 309 near the Camp Hill Road overpass in Whitemarsh. Richard Guerrier, 21, got out of the car to look under the hood while his mother, Esther Louis, 54, went to the back of the car. A Lexus SUV coming around a curve struck and killed them.

Lauren Talbot will be remembered as a popular classmate and talented tennis teammate at Council Rock North. According to Paul Wysocki, a teacher and girls' tennis coach there, Talbot was also known for the caution she displayed behind the wheel of a car. "Lauren was, by all accounts, an extremely responsible and careful driver," said Wysocki. "Whenever she gave one of our girls a ride home, they stressed how safe she was. " Tragically, Talbot has become the sixth Bucks County teenager in the past month to die as a result of injuries suffered in a traffic accident.

A 22-year-old woman was struck and killed by a vehicle as she attempted to cross West Dekalb Pike on foot late last night in Upper Merion, Montgomery County. Police say Amber Marcinowski, 22, of Collingdale, Delaware County, was trying to cross the road about 10:20 p.m. Monday near Town Center Road when she was hit by a vehicle driven by Eber Noriega, 38, of Norristown, Montgomery County, who was driving south on the pike. No further information was available early this morning.

The 13-year-old daughter of country singer George Strait was killed in a car accident late Wednesday, and the driver was charged yesterday with criminally negligent homicide. A Texas public-safety spokesman said Jennifer Strait was riding with two teenage male friends in a car driven by William Allen McDonald, 16, on a rural road outside San Marcos when the car failed to negotiate a curve, skidded sideways, rolled over and landed on its top in a ditch. The spokesman said that "excessive speed" contributed to the accident.

Since a snowy early morning Jan. 26, it had been a mystery to the family of a Chester Township nurse precisely what happened after she left work at a geriatric home and disappeared. And, while relatives were deeply grief-stricken Saturday after Ronda Garnett's body was found in her car at the bottom of a snowy ravine off Route 352 in Brookhaven, they said they were grateful they finally knew what had happened to their loved one. "We knew something happened to her. We just didn't know what, and that not knowing was really terrible for us," said her mother, Linda, who had led an aggressive campaign to find her daughter.

A 19-year-old Chester woman was killed yesterday afternoon when she plummeted from the Lightnin' Loops roller coaster at the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson Township, N.J., police said. Karen Anne Marie Brown, of the 300 block of Rural Road, was killed when she fell from the roller coaster about 3:45 p.m., said a spokeswoman for the Freehold Area Hospital in Monmouth County. Brown was riding on the roller coaster with her boyfriend, Richard De Prince, 20, of Chester, De Prince's father said last night.

Robert Mongeluzzi, the Philadelphia plaintiff's lawyer representing families of two Hungarian tourists killed in the duck-boat accident, is known both for his surgically precise trial technique and for the hundreds of millions of dollars he has won in verdicts and settlements for clients. Mongeluzzi is a founding partner of his firm, Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky P.C., of Center City, and chairs its workplace-accident and product-liability practice groups. His trial trademarks: preparing meticulously and putting complex issues of legal negligence into simple, emotionally accessible language that jurors can relate to. "He is able to be very diplomatic, but he is also very aggressive when it comes to causes that he believes in," said Steven G. Wigrizer, a plaintiff's lawyer with the firm of Wapner Newman Wigrizer Brecher & Miller who has known Mongeluzzi for decades.

The driver and a front-seat passenger who survived a two-vehicle crash last month that killed their friend, Washington Township High School senior Nicole Kellenyi, are being charged with possession of an open, unsealed alcoholic beverage container and other motor vehicle offenses, township police said Tuesday. Toxicology tests reveal that neither Alexandria Giantonnio, 18, the driver of the 1998 Saturn carrying Kellenyi, nor the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the collision at the intersection of Altair Drive and Pitman Downer Road on April 14, authorities said.

A man apparently trying to catch a departing SEPTA train in Lansdale was struck by the train and injured Wednesday morning. The man, described as a regular SEPTA rider in his 60s, was "conscious and talking" as he was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said. The accident happened at about 9:53 a.m. near Main Street in Lansdale as the man attempted to catch a train bound for Philadelphia on the Lansdale-Doylestown line, Williams said.

A 22-year-old woman was struck and killed by a vehicle as she attempted to cross West Dekalb Pike on foot late last night in Upper Merion, Montgomery County. Police say Amber Marcinowski, 22, of Collingdale, Delaware County, was trying to cross the road about 10:20 p.m. Monday near Town Center Road when she was hit by a vehicle driven by Eber Noriega, 38, of Norristown, Montgomery County, who was driving south on the pike. No further information was available early this morning.

A mother and son whose car stalled in the middle of busy Route 309 in Montgomery County were killed when an SUV slammed into their car Monday afternoon. "They never knew what hit them," said Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman. Pennsylvania State Police said the 2000 Lincoln Town Car broke down in the center lane of the northbound side of Route 309 near the Camp Hill Road overpass in Whitemarsh. Richard Guerrier, 21, got out of the car to look under the hood while his mother, Esther Louis, 54, went to the back of the car. A Lexus SUV coming around a curve struck and killed them.

The driver and a front-seat passenger who survived a two-vehicle crash last month that killed their friend, Washington Township High School senior Nicole Kellenyi, are being charged with possession of an open, unsealed alcoholic beverage container and other motor vehicle offenses, township police said Tuesday. Toxicology tests reveal that neither Alexandria Giantonnio, 18, the driver of the 1998 Saturn carrying Kellenyi, nor the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the collision at the intersection of Altair Drive and Pitman Downer Road on April 14, authorities said.

SEPTA buses were involved in two separate accidents Monday afternoon, officials said. In the first, a Route 64 bus was traveling on Grays Ferry Avenue near Ellsworth Street, in Grays Ferry, around 4:15 p.m. when it collided with a van at the intersection, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said. Six people suffered minor injuries in the accident and were being taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment. Busch said the left front side of the bus was damaged in that accident.

A skydiving accident at the Perkiomen Valley Airport in Skippack Township Sunday afternoon sent an instructor and his student to the hospital. The man and woman, both in their late 40s, landed "hard" around 2 p.m. and were taken to Paoli Hospital — one by helicopter and one by ambulance, according to a police spokesman. A person who answered the phone at Keystone Skydive Center who identified himself as the owner said at 5 p.m. he had just received a call from the hospital saying "they are going to be fine.

Thirteen Pennridge High School students and one adult were injured when the bus they were riding in reportedly hit another car and a light post after leaving Dorney Park in Allentown on Friday evening. School Principal Thomas Creeden said none of the injuries was life-threatening. "One girl had a pretty good bump on her head," he said in a posting on the district website. "We're fortunate the injuries do not appear to be serious. " Those injured were being treated at local hospitals, including Lehigh Valley Cedar Crest and St. Luke's Allentown, Creeden said.

Robert Mongeluzzi, the Philadelphia plaintiff's lawyer representing families of two Hungarian tourists killed in the duck-boat accident, is known both for his surgically precise trial technique and for the hundreds of millions of dollars he has won in verdicts and settlements for clients. Mongeluzzi is a founding partner of his firm, Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky P.C., of Center City, and chairs its workplace-accident and product-liability practice groups. His trial trademarks: preparing meticulously and putting complex issues of legal negligence into simple, emotionally accessible language that jurors can relate to. "He is able to be very diplomatic, but he is also very aggressive when it comes to causes that he believes in," said Steven G. Wigrizer, a plaintiff's lawyer with the firm of Wapner Newman Wigrizer Brecher & Miller who has known Mongeluzzi for decades.

In the nearly two years since their children drowned in the Delaware, the families of Dora Schwendtner and Szabolcs Prem have grown close. They had never met before the summer of 2010, when Dora, 16, and Szabolcs, 20, came to Philadelphia as part of a church-sponsored cross-cultural trip. But on July 7 of that year, after a barge overran the Ride the Ducks tour boat that had been anchored with engine trouble in the middle of a shipping lane, the families were thrown together by tragedy.

A Ride the Ducks boat stalled on the Delaware River Sunday afternoon, on the eve of a trial stemming from the 2010 accident in which a large barge hit a duck vessel stopped on the water, killing two passengers. All 26 passengers and two crew members were towed safely to shore, the company said. After the 2010 accident, in which two Hungarian students died when a barge hit a stalled Ride the Ducks boat, the company, working with the Coast Guard, created a safety plan that included always having a tow boat nearby.