Speed a role in Bucks crash that killed a child

The driver of a Ford Mustang that killed a 7-year-old girl and gravely injured her grandmother in a car crash Wednesday evening was traveling at a high rate of speed, the Bucks County District Attorney said.

David W. Heckler said reconstruction experts have yet to establish how fast the super-charged vehicle was going just before 7 p.m. when it rear-ended a Honda traveling northbound on the Doylestown Bypass.

The impact caused the Honda to veer off onto the grass along the highway, where it flipped over several times before coming to rest, Heckler said.

The occupants - the little girl and her 53-year-old grandmother – were found in or near the wreckage, he said.

The grandmother was flown by helicopter to Temple University Hospital where Heckler said she was in grave condition. Rescuers worked frantically to save the girl, but she could not be revived, he said.

The Mustang "went a good distance past the Broad Street overpass" in Doylestown Township and crashed into the guardrail on the median strip, Heckler said.

Rescue units had to cut off the vehicle's roof and disassemble the guardrail to extricate the occupants, a Pipersville man and his female passenger.

Heckler declined to name any of the four people involved in the accident. He said all were residents of Plumstead Township who were heading home.

The Mustang's driver and the passenger were taken to Abington Memorial Hospital, where the driver underwent surgery Saturday night for leg injuries, Heckler said. The passenger also sustained leg injuries.

The driver allowed his blood to be drawn as part of the investigation. No charges have been filed, and as of Thursday, there was no indication that alcohol played a factor in the crash, Heckler said.

He said that while the Mustang was moving at a high rate of speed, there was no indication of erratic driving.

"We'll let the science do the talking," he said of the work by investigators. "Both of the vehicles will be examined, and a part of the conclusions are based on deformation of the metals."

The wreckage was also documented from the air by a videographer.

Heckler said the accident was among the worst he had seen in many years as a prosecutor in Bucks County.

"I won't say it's the worst," he said, "but the killing of a 7-year-old on Thanksgiving Eve, being driven in the back seat of a car going home, is certainly a heartwrenching event."