ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A prosecutor said a motorist was drunk when her car fatally struck a popular high school teacher as he walked along a dark road, but she won’t be charged in his death because he was drunk as well.
The 25-year-old woman would have hit 50-year-old John S. Toggas even if she had been sober, Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said Thursday. He said Toggas suddenly stepped three feet into the lane of travel when the woman, going at or below the 45 mph speed limit, hit him around 2 a.m. April 18.
The woman will be charged with drunken driving, but not vehicular homicide or manslaughter, the prosecutor said.
“Mr. Toggas brought this circumstance about in large measure by his own conduct,” he said.
A few hours before his death, Toggas was arrested for drunken driving and released to the custody of his wife. She was driving him to their home in Berks County when he insisted on getting out and walking the remaining 13 miles home.
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