DA won’t charge teen in Indiana Township bike fatality
By Bobby Kerlik
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A teenage driver who police said struck and killed a Hampton bicyclist because he was distracted by his flip-flops will not face criminal charges, Allegheny County prosecutors said Friday.
The then-17-year-old, who was on his way to Fox Chapel High School, struck and killed Donald Parker, 52, with a pickup truck about 7 a.m. May 27 along Harts Run Road in Indiana Township. The crash occurred when the boy looked away because his flip-flop became tangled in the pedal, and he veered off the road, said police and prosecutors.
Parker died at UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland.
“We would not be able to sustain our burden based on the facts,” said Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
Prosecutors said the driver, now 18, could face a summary offense of careless driving with unintentional death.
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