Good Samaritan severely injured and woman killed on Route 1 in lower Bucks County…
Apr 27th, 2009 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Local Car AccidentsRoute 1 in Middletown Township was the scene of another deadly Bucks County car accident on Friday, April 17, 2009. At 2:37 a.m., a man’s legs were severed and the woman he was helping change a flat tire for was killed when a car slammed into her disabled vehicle.
The fatal Bucks County car accident occurred just a few miles from the scene of another similar tragedy. It was January 29, 2009 when Middletown Police Officer Chris Jones was killed as he walked back to his patrol car parked on the narrow shoulder and was hit from behind by another vehicle.
The woman killed in Friday’s crash was 27-year-old Reyna Castro of Trenton. She was driving southbound on Route 1 when a front tire of her 1997 Nissan Altima went flat. Unfortunately, Ms. Castro had nowhere to pull over because there is no shoulder in that area of the highway.
Michael Kogan, 27, and his passenger, Aleksei Brodsky, 51, both of Bensalem, were also traveling southbound on Route 1. Kogan pulled his car in front of Castro’s car and got out to help her after seeing her standing behind her vehicle.
It was then that Denis M. Hostler slammed into Castro with his 2006 Hyundai Sonata. The investigating Middletown Township, PA police officer estimates Hostler was traveling at least 70 mph in the 55 mph zone. Kogan’s lower body was pinned between his and Castro’s car. There were no skid marks were found prior to the impact revealing that Hostler never hit his brakes.
Autopsy results show Castro died instantly of massive personal injuries. Kogan lost both legs after being rushed to St. Mary Medical Center by the Bensalem Rescue Squad in very critical condition. Brodsky was injured after also being struck by Castro’s car, but his injuries were not as serious as Kogan’s injuries.
The fatal Bucks County car accident remains under investigation. Hostler was taken to St. Mary Medical Center and was treated and released. Hostler had both blood and urine samples taken to determine whether he was driving under the influence.
If Hostler is found to be driving carelessly, and/or not in control of his vehicle, there will most likely by a Bucks County wrongful death case brought by Castro’s family and a Bucks County personal injury case brought by Kogan and his passenger, Brosky.
The damages in a resulting Bucks County lawsuit will most like be in the multimillions. Hopefully, Hostler has adequate Pennsylvania car insurance or other assets to compensate the victims of this serious Bucks County car accident.
i dont know, ….. could go either way, …. obstruction of traffic is the first offense that occured here….. can understand someone getting a flat, ….. but a perfectly good vehicle pulled behind her, obstructing traffic….
no one had a cell phone?
all roads should have shoulders or grassy areas to pull over on
rt 1 is a us federal highway, ….. and there is no valid reason it doesnt have a shoulder after all these years it has been in existance.
if the man had any sense, he would have screamed at the lady to get back in here car, he would follow behind, until they reached an area they could pull over. in my opinion, once he parked his car behind hers, and got out to change the tire, he himself was obstructing traffic. i know obstruction of traffic is a nj traffic violation, i am not sure about pennsylvania though.
a lawyer told me a case a few weeks ago….. a woman was driving on a highway, hit the median concrete, and disabled her car, .. a one car accident, ….. called 911 and her mom, and sat in the car waiting for help,…. she couldnt really move and get out because she injured her knee badly, so she sat and waited, …… well,…. before the police and rescue workers could arrive, bamm, a car came up at high speed and hit her car ,,, bamm, more 911 calls then poured in from everyone with cell phones on the road, …. the woman in the car suffered severe brain damage, and other injuries, …
who’s fault is it, …. hers because she caused the initial one car accident, maybe, but we know not aLL ONE CAR ACCIDENTS ARE THE FAULT OF THE DRIVER, … or the car the rammed into her creating the 2nd accident, … or possible the police and rescue squad for not responding fast enough to the first accident 911 calls,…
in this case, there are dozens of 911 calls about the first accident, all sound like one way, … as compared to the 2nd rung of 911 calls, dozens of people in shock about what they just saw, as to the 2nd accident.
is this a no fault accident,?
personal injury law is quite intriging in these cases, .. injured people , of course, need to be compensated, and sometimes they get compensated regarless of fault.
back in the summer of 1998, …. me and my friend had tickets to go see robert plant and stevie ray vaung at the brenden byrne arena at the meadowlands, .. we had just graduated college that may, …. well, he couldnt take his car, and i told him my car was having trouble, i didn t think we could make it from freehold to nutley, to meet our other friends for the show, … but he insisted and i caved in, …. well, going over the driscol bridge, thats the garden state parkway bridge that goes from sayreville to perth amboy, over the raritan river, …my altinator /battery power stopped and me car died at the top of the bridge, on the incline up,…..near the very top, … this was a then 6 lane highway in the north direction, and cars were whizzing by us at 60-70 miles per hour, .. we got out, … cars were comin g up, seeing us stopped, and getting over to the next lane, we were in the far right lane, no shoulder of course, … every car that came up almost was in a terrible accident, … if our car was hit, we could have plunged to the river below, or any other scneriio, like cars at 65 mph, getting over to the next lane at the last possible second, and hit into a car there, …. it could have been multiple deaths, ….. well, within 3 mionutes, what seemed like an eternity, a state police traffic patrol car, with the big rubber bumbers came up behind us, told us to get in the car, and he pushed us over the bridge to a saf spot, and called a tow truck, …… no accidents occured, … and me and my friend called our friend in nutley, … he picked us up, and we went to thne show, …… my dad took me to pick up my car from a gas station , who had put in a good alternator,…..
i mean, who knows who’s fault that would have been had serious accidents occured, …. i think that was the scariest 3 minutes of my life.
i mean summer of 1988