Saltsburg,PA : Saltsburg man sentenced in fatal DUI crash on June, Friday 9th 2017

A Saltsburg-area man was sentenced this morning to serve time in a state correctional institution for his guilty plea to reduced charges in a car crash that killed one of his friends last year.
Matthew Pommer, 22, of Conemaugh Township, was sentenced by Indiana County President Judge William Martin to serve 18 months to three years in prison and a maximum of five years on probation and pay $800 in fines.
Pommer pleaded guilty in April to third-degree felony counts of homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault by vehicle, and a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence. In a plea agreement, prosecutors set aside 12 other charges.
Investigators said Luke White, 21, of Saltsburg, was killed, and Pommer and three other passengers were injured when Pommer’s Dodge Neon careened off Saltsburg Road and slammed into a tree just before 4 a.m. on June 5, 2016. Accident reconstruction specialists estimated the car was traveling 74 mph when it crashed.
White, the front-seat passenger, died at the scene from internal injuries, according to the Indiana County coroner’s office.
Pommer was airlifted to a Pittsburgh hospital along with a passenger, Ian South, of New Alexandria, for treatment of their injuries. Investigators said Jacob Gray and Austin Hopkins, both of Saltsburg, fled the scene and were found in the woods nearby. Gray was admitted to Forbes Regional Medical Center in Monroeville for treatment. Hopkins told investigators the group had been partying in a field somewhere along Saltsburg Road and had left that area about two minutes before the car crashed.
Police smelled the odor of alcohol and found “multiple amounts of liquor and beer” in the car, according to a criminal complaint.
After changes were made to the admissibility of blood tests, prosecutors set aside the most serious charges that Pommer faced, including one count of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, a charge punishable by up to seven years in prison, and four counts of aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence, all second-degree felonies. Pommer also had been charged with driving under the influence of marijuana, driving under the influence of a combination of drugs and alcohol, and summary traffic offenses.
Before the sentencing, Martin said the incident has been referred to by some as “a tragic accident.”
“That is not the case here. … This was not an accident,” Martin said, adding that White’s death and the injuries to four other people were the result of Pommer’s decisions and actions, including his decision to drive after drinking.
Pommer read a brief statement to the court, then turned and apologized to White’s relatives and friends in the courtroom, some of whom were wearing red T-shirts with “In loving memory of Luke White” printed on the back.


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Saltsburg man sentenced in fatal DUI crash