The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

May 7, 2008

Hit-and-run arrest made in van-buggy crash

By Courtney Anderson

PERRY TOWNSHIP — A Pymatuning Township man cited repeatedly for driving on a suspended license over the past eight years is in jail after state police charged him with a hit-and-run crash with an Amish buggy Monday that left the buggy’s driver critically injured and killed a horse.

Timothy Fredrick Alter, 29, of Lot 7 90 Shenango Park Road, faces six charges, including driving under suspension related to drunken driving, court documents said.

Police said Alter was driving a 1984 Chevrolet van about 12:45 a.m. on state Route 358 east of Hughey Road in Perry Township when the van struck the buggy driven by Erven Byler from behind.

Byler, 22, of 5824 Pine Road, East Fallowfield Township, Crawford County, was thrown about 50 feet and the horse was killed, police said.

Byler was in critical condition Wednesday at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown, a spokeswoman said. As of Tuesday he was in a medically-induced coma, court documents said.

After the crash, police sought information from the public about the accident and took pieces of a vehicle from the wreckage to Ben Bissett Chevrolet, East Lackawannock Township. The service manager determined they were from an early 1980s model conversion van, court documents said.

Police got a phone call Tuesday from someone who heard about the crash and said they believed the van was being stored in a garage on Perrine Road in Sandy Creek Township, court documents said. The woman who owned the garage gave police permission to go inside and they found the blue-gray van, which is registered to Alter’s wife.

Alter was at the home and told police he knew why they were there, agreed to an interview and said that he was driving and did not stop, court documents said. He told police he realized it was an Amish buggy and that he fled and parked the van in the garage the next morning.

Alter was arraigned Tuesday night by District Judge James E. McMahon, Sharon, on charges of hit and run resulting in death or injury, failure to stop and render aid or give information, failure to notify police of an accident and accident involving damage to attended vehicles or property.

Alter is scheduled for a preliminary hearing May 16 before District Judge Lorinda Hinch, Mercer. He was taken to Mercer County Jail after failing to post $10,000 bail.

According to Mercer County court records, Alter has pleaded guilty to driving under suspension six times since 2000, the latest was in February. There is no record of a drunken driving charge against him in Pennsylvania. His criminal record also includes a drug paraphernalia charge he pleaded guilty to in 2006 and guilty pleas in a 1996 theft and criminal trespassing case.

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