Girl, dad charged in fatal crash

Philadelphia Daily News (PA)

Flowers and a melancholy note from grieving family members wilted in the rain on a telephone poll at the corner of Nesper Street and Ryan Avenue in Mayfair yesterday, just a few yards from where a young mother was fatally injured last month.

Sarah McGinley, 18, was pinned by an out-of-control car on her fiance's front lawn on April 17, just seconds after she tossed her 1-year-old daughter to safety. She died from her injuries a few hours later.Yesterday morning, the District Attorney's Office announced it was filing charges against the driver, Megan Miller, 15, and her father, Richard Miller, 46.

With her father alongside her, Megan Miller was practicing driving in the parking lot of Abraham Lincoln High School when the car crashed through a fence, sped across an intersection and soared up the lawn, hitting McGinley. Miller did not have a learner's permit or a driver's license.

The teen is charged with being involved in an accident involving death or personal injury while not being properly licensed, and will be tried in juvenile court.

Her father is being charged with involuntary manslaughter and homicide by vehicle. He could face up to 12 years in prison, said D.A. spokeswoman Cathie Aboo-kire.

Both father and daughter surrendered to the police accident-investigation division yesterday afternoon, said the family's attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr.

“It is an impossibly difficult time for them,” Perri said. “They have nothing but grief for McGinley's family.”

The Millers are expected to have separate preliminary hearings within the next week, Perri said.

In both cases, “I think the judge will evaluate the situation and see it's nothing more than an accident. She lost control of the vehicle and was unable to stop what happened. It's a shame,” he said.

Local criminal-defense attorney A. Charles Peruto said he believes that juvenile court will be kind to Megan Miller. “The most likely outcome is that they will defer adjudication. They'll leave her in limbo until she's 18 and then wipe her record clean,” Peruto said.

The reason, he said, is that as a “young, nonindependent person,” she was just following her father's instructions to practice driving.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham viewed the Millers' accident different from Peruto. She cited Pennsylvania law stating that drivers must obtain learner's permits before they can possess a driver's license. “Then and only then may you get behind the wheel of a lethal vehicle and drive the car,” she said.

Abraham also faulted Richard Miller for allowing his daughter to drive his 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis, even though they were in a deserted parking lot. If Miller had denied his daughter a driving lesson, “that would have prevented a young mother from dying, and a child from being orphaned for her entire life.”

McGinley's daughter, Victoria Wagner, is being cared for by her fiance and his parents. *

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