Man admits to hit-run, killing Blue Bell tow truck driver

NORRISTOWN >> A Philadelphia man is in jail awaiting his fate from a judge after he admitted to being the hit-and-run driver who killed a Blue Bell tow truck driver assisting a disabled motorist on the Schuylkill Expressway in Lower Merion.

Emmanuel Doxy, 36, of the 1600 block of Widener Place, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to charges of homicide by vehicle and accidents involving death or personal injury in connection with the 9 p.m. Jan. 28, 2018, crash that claimed the life of Michael House, 32, of Blue Bell.

Judge William R. Carpenter revoked Doxy’s bail and Doxy will remain in the county jail pending his sentencing hearing later this year. The judge ordered Doxy to undergo drug and alcohol evaluations and a background investigation by court officials before his sentencing date.

Doxy faces a possible maximum sentence of 8½ to 17 years in prison on the charges.

House, who worked for K & S Towing and Recovery in Havertown, was assisting a disabled motorist on eastbound Interstate 76 at mile marker 338.6 in Lower Merion when he was struck and killed by Doxy’s vehicle, a Ford F-150 pickup truck.

As House was loading a disabled vehicle onto his tow truck, he was struck by Doxy’s pickup truck, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Ryan Rogers, of Troop K, Philadelphia, alleged in an arrest affidavit. Doxy failed to stop and render aid and fled eastbound on the highway, police alleged.

House was found unconscious lying in the right lane of the roadway, police said.

“Several witnesses and bystanders of the crash were on scene attempting to revive the victim through the use of CPR. The victim later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased,” Rogers wrote in court papers.

A witness to the Schuylkill Expressway hit-and-run provided a description of the striking vehicle, including information regarding the registration tag, and within several hours Doxy was in custody. Police located Doxy’s pickup truck near his residence and it had “damage that was consistent with a recent crash,” Rogers alleged.

“Further, troopers observed a piece of the safety vest similar to what the victim was wearing at the time of the crash, still lodged inside the front grill area of (Doxy’s pickup truck),” Rogers alleged in the criminal complaint.

When Doxy was interviewed by police, he confessed to being the operator and sole occupant of his Ford F-150 vehicle when it struck House.

Other charges of failure to stop and render aid, failure to notify police of an accident involving injury and careless and reckless driving will be dismissed against Doxy at sentencing time in exchange for his guilty plea to the most serious charges.

At the time of House’s death, his co-workers remembered him as “a good-hearted guy,” and as “a gentle giant, meek and mild,” a man who would say hello to everybody.

Several days after the crash, hundreds of towtruck operators took part in the funeral procession to honor House. Tow operators from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware took part.

House is survived by his wife and two sons.