TRENTON
Reckless Driver Punished: Ram R. Thatigutla, 51, of Princeton, is serving six hard years in the slammer for killing 55-year-old John A. Pelc in a West Windsor vehicular homicide. Authorities said Thatigutla was driving drunk when he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a Yamaha motorcycle driven by Pelc. The deadly crash occurred on Quakerbridge Road in West Windsor about 1 p.m. July 23, 2017. After the crash, Thatigutla jumped out of his car and ran. He made it several hundred feet south of the collision site before he collapsed on the concrete median. Citizens in the area then held him until police arrived to make the arrest. Pelc was pronounced dead at the scene. A 48-year-old Lawrence woman suffered minor head injuries that afternoon when Thatigutla crashed into the rear of her Hyundai Sonata before slamming into Pelc’s motorcycle. A four-count superseding indictment handed up on March 9, 2018, charged Thatigutla with first-degree aggravated manslaughter, second-degree reckless death by auto, second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in injury or death and fourth-degree assault by auto. He pleaded guilty last fall to seconddegree vehicular homicide and had the other counts in the indictment dismissed at his sentencing hearing last month. Mercer County Superior Court Judge
Peter Warshaw on Jan. 24 sentenced Thatigutla to six years of incarceration. He must serve 85 percent of the term behind bars before he can be released on parole. He will then be subjected to three years of parole supervision. The judge also ordered Thatigutla to pay more than $26,000 in restitution, court records show. Thatigutla has been awarded 550 days of jail credit. He is currently incarcerated at the Central Reception and Assignment Facility in Ewing Township, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections. He is scheduled to be released from state custody on Aug. 28, 2022.