Man gets prison for leaving scene of fatal pedestrian crash
NORRISTOWN » A Philadelphia tow truck driver will head to state prison next month after he admitted to charges he fatally struck a pedestrian in Lower Merion and left the scene without rendering aid.
Farran Haynes, 45, of the 5200 block of West Clarkson Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Monday to 2½ to five years in a state correctional facility in connection with the 6:40 p.m. Dec. 2, 2016, hit-and-run incident on Righters Mill Road that killed Huiqing Jiang, 72, a pedestrian. Haynes pleaded guilty to a charge of accidents involving death in connection with the incident.
Judge Gail A. Weilheimer, who accepted a negotiated sentence in the matter, said the case was “particularly troubling.”
“There are no bad people here, but a bad choice. Your error was not stopping. There is a punitive side to the mistake that you made,” Weilheimer addressed Haynes.
Haynes, a married father of three, also must complete three years’ probation. The judge said he must report to prison on Nov. 1 to begin serving the sentence.
“It was not intentional. It wasn’t meant. It was a freak accident. I’m truly sorry for your loss,” a remorseful Haynes addressed the victim’s relatives, some of whom wept in court.
Under the terms of the negotiated sentence, Haynes is eligible for the state Department of Corrections’ Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive program, which allows eligible offenders to receive reductions of their minimum prison sentences if they successfully complete all required treatment and maintain good-conduct records in prison. Prisoners can be released upon completing the program only if officials are satisfied that the offenders pose no risks to public safety.
If Haynes successfully completes the program, he can reduce his minimum 30-month state prison term to 22 ½ months.
But the judge turned down a request from defense lawyer Christopher Frank Bagnato, who sought the state’s boot camp program for Haynes, a program that could have further reduced Haynes’ minimum sentence.
Assistant District Attorney James Price, who opposed the boot camp program for Haynes, sought state prison time against Haynes.
“What this case is, is a failure of humanity. In that moment…instead of stopping and recognizing the pain he caused, he left,” said Price, referring to Haynes’ conduct.
Jiang’s wife of 38 years wrote a letter to the judge explaining she and her husband, once school teachers in China, emigrated to the U.S. to fulfill a dream.
“We finally obtained our
“What this case is, is a failure of humanity. In that moment… instead of stopping and recognizing the pain he caused, he left.” — Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney James Price
dream of living as Americans. That dream was taken away in an instant,” the victim’s wife wrote in the letter that Price read in court. “My husband was my best friend, my confidant and my partner. Now I feel lost and lonely and have difficulty living my daily life without him.”
An investigation began when Lower Merion police responded to a report of a man lying in the roadway in the 600 block of Righters Mill Road near Woodbine Avenue. Investigators found Jiang unresponsive in the roadway with serious injuries sustained from being struck by a vehicle.
Jiang was later pronounced dead at Lankenau Hospital. An autopsy determined the cause of death was “non-survivable blunt force trauma,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Police determined that the striking vehicle had fled the scene without stopping to render aid to Jiang.
The investigation determined Jiang had been walking eastbound along the south curb of Righters Mill Road when he was struck by a vehicle, which was proceeding eastbound on Righters Mill Road, according to the criminal complaint filed by Lower Merion Police Officer Charles Farrell. Police recovered pieces of a vehicle at the scene and the investigation determined that the recovered pieces were from a 2008 to 2012 model vehicle.
Police obtained surveillance footage from a home on Righters Mill Road that showed a flatbed-style truck with overhead lighting was traveling east on the roadway around the time the pedestrian was struck. A witness told investigators he was standing in his driveway when he heard a loud noise from the roadway “and looked up to see a big flatbed type truck, possibly a tow truck.”
“Shortly after, the witness discovered a man had been struck by a vehicle,” Farrell wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Additional surveillance footage obtained from a nearby Wawa, less than a mile from the crash site, showed a red flatbed-style tow truck pull into the parking lot. The operator of the truck “is then observed exiting the vehicle and examining the front and passenger side of the vehicle,” according to the criminal complaint.
On Dec. 4, investigators determined the vehicle, a 2012 Dodge Ram 5500 flatbed tow truck, was owned by Bala Motor Sports on Belmont Avenue, according to the criminal complaint. The vehicle’s owner cooperated with investigators and gave authorities permission to access GPS data that ultimately confirmed the truck was on Righters Mill Road at the time of the fatal pedestrian crash. The owner also provided police with information that indicated Haynes was driving the truck the day of the crash.
Investigators examined the vehicle for damage.
“Located on the front right bumper in the chrome portion of the vehicle, Officer Farrell observed an imprint of a pattern that was consistent with the corduroy pants worn by the victim,” according to the criminal complaint.
Inspection of the truck also showed that someone had repaired damage to the vehicle, the criminal complaint alleged.
Investigators also determined that Haynes had violated regulations on commercial driving by driving more than the maximum 11 hours of drive time allowed in a 14-hour period, had allowed his commercial medical examiners certificate to expire and had forged the expired certificate to change the date, according to the criminal complaint.
Haynes also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of forgery in connection with the incident. Price commended Lower Merion police for their investigative efforts in locating the surveillance footage that helped lead to the striking vehicle.