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Lawyer: Fatal accident not crime

PennDOT worker died after being struck on I-99 in February 2018

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Just a year ago, a winter storm suddenly materialized in the Altoona area with snow, sleet and slick roads, leading to at least six accidents along a short stretch of I-99, including a fatality involving PennDOT foreman Robert Gensimore.

Gensimore, 45, of Spruce Creek, had parked his truck that displayed a blinking arrow and was in the process of setting out flares to warn oncoming motorists of an accident in the southbound lane when a vehicle driven by State College resident Guanglong Hu stuck and killed him.

State police Cpl. Kenneth Benton, who investigated the accident, charged the 30-year-old Penn State graduate student with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, speeding and other motor vehicle violations.

Hu’s attorney, Karen E. Kuebler of Bellefonte, on Thursday asked Blair County Judge Daniel J. Milliron to dismiss the criminal charges, contending that Hu was no different than many motorists that day, losing control of his motor vehicle because of weather conditions.

Kuebler argued before Milliron that investigators have not been able to show that a crime had been committed.

Hu, it is alleged, told the officer he was driving 65 mph when he lost control of his Chevrolet Cobalt and went out of control, but the listed speed limit on the road is 70 mph.

Without Hu’s statement, the prosecution is unable to even establish a crime had been committed, argued Kuebler.

The defense issue, she said, is that everybody in Pennsylvania knows that storms suddenly appear and a “bunch of accidents” ensue.

Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio said the government wasn’t basing its charges on speed but on the fact that Hu lost control, as shown by the tracks of his vehicle along the snowy road.

The prosecution is contending Hu either knew, or should have known, from the weather conditions and the fact he may have just passed another vehicular accident, that there was “a potential for an accident.”

Benton was called to testify Thursday afternoon during a brief hearing before the judge and described conditions along I-99 after 3 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2018.

He said he was wrapping up the investigation of one accident at mile marker 35 near the Kettle Street Bridge when he was informed someone had been struck farther north on I-99.

The 24-year veteran of the state police began driving north, toward State College, and saw other vehicles in distress.

Benton said he was driving about 40 mph because of the road conditions.

He found Hu’s vehicle along the west berm of the southbound lane. The tracks showed Hu had traveled out of the southbound lane, twice impacted the guardrail along the west berm and came to a stop facing north.

The state police and Logan Township police investigated six accidents within a 1.3-mile stretch of I-99 that day, Benton reported.

Kuebler wanted to know if any of the other drivers had been cited.

Benton testified he cited a Kentucky motorist for driving too fast for conditions after his vehicle crossed from the northbound to southbound lanes and crashed into the guardrails.

Milliron requested copies of the police accident report, a report prepared by an accident reconstructionist, the transcript of the preliminary hearing and a transcript of Thursday’s hearing.

He also asked Kuebler and Consiglio to submit legal briefs.

With that information in hand, the judge said he will be able to decide if criminal charges against Hu should remain or be dismissed.

While Hu speaks English, Kuebler told the judge an interpreter who knows Mandarin Chinese will be needed if the case goes to trial.

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