Driver to face trial for fatal crash
Route 100 crash killed his fiancee
BOYERTOWN >> A Washington Township man accused of being under the influence of prescription drugs when he slammed his minivan into a tractor-trailer near Bechtelsville last summer, fatally injuring his fiancee, was held for trial following a hearing Monday afternoon.
Shaun M. Kramer, 35, of the 2100 block of Weisstown Road, is charged with homicide by vehicle and driving under the influence of a controlled substance and other counts.
He remains free while awaiting further court action after the hearing before District Judge Michael G. Hartman in Boyertown.
The crash occurred July 13, 2018, about 10:50 a.m. in the northbound lanes of Route 100, just north of Limekiln Road in Washington Township.
Kramer and his fiancee, Amber Frain, 32, were trapped in the wreckage and freed by emergency crews. Both were taken by ambulance to Lehigh Valley Hospital near Allentown.
Frain was unresponsive when she was taken to the hospital. She was pronounced dead a week later by a staff doctor, according to the Lehigh County coroner’s office.
According to the court documents:
A witness told investigators the minivan Kramer was driving was weaving while northbound on Route 100, just north of Limekiln Road.
The vehicle drifted across the white line and struck a tractor-trailer that was legally parked on the shoulder.
A witness said the minivan was traveling 50 mph to 60 mph at the time. She went to check on both occupants of the minivan and saw neither was wearing a seat belt.
The driver of the tractortrailer wasn’t injured.
Troopers ordered blood to be drawn from Kramer at the hospital. Results of those tests showed the presence of clonazepam and other drugs that belong to the class of benzodiazepines, also known as tranquilizers, as well as buprenorphine, which is prescribed to help people quit opioid drugs.
The drugs individually cause impairment, investigators noted.