A New Jersey truck driver will be arraigned in common pleas court on vehicular homicide charges in the Oct. 22, 2012, crash on Route 222 that killed a 45-year-old Richmond Township woman.
Emilio Perez-Pazmino, 62, of Jersey City, is scheduled to appear Feb. 3 before Judge Stephen B. Lieberman. In addition to the vehicular homicide charges, Perez-Pazmino is also charged with involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person and aggravated assault by vehicle.
He is currently free on $25,000 unsecured bond.
Police said Perez-Pazmino’s southbound rig rammed a line of stopped vehicles on Route 222 about two-tenths of a mile north of Pleasant Hill Road in Maidencreek Township. The area between the Kutztown Bypass and Maidencreek is a site notorious for heavy traffic congestion.
Lauren Boyer, 45, of Richmond Township was killed when the tractor-trailer pushed her stopped car into the stopped truck ahead of her, police said. The crash also injured three other people.
Charges were filed against Perez-Pazmino last October after a year-long investigation in which investigators found Perez-Pazmino never hit the brakes before slamming into the other vehicles at 45 to 50 mph, and police who responded to the scene said it was one of the worst accidents they had ever seen on the 222 corridor.
Reached for comment, Perez-Pazmino’s attorney, Paul Stewart Missan of Reading, agreed it was a horrific accident. ‘But, while the case is very sad, it looked like a very terrible accident and not a criminal act,’ he said.
