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The men were racing each other at more than 100 mph, causing a five-car collision in late December, according to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Burlington County Bridge Commission Public Safety Director Patrick J. Reilly.
Jonathan Ramos, 28, of East Louden Street, was charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a fatal accident causing Death while driving with a suspended license and endangering an injured victim by leaving the scene without rendering aid, Coffina and Reilly said.
Ramos surrendered with his attorney on Monday at the Prosecutor’s Office in Mount Holly, Coffina said.
Brandon Moore, 23, of McKinley Street in Philadelphia, was charged with vehicular homicide and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, Coffina and Reilly said.
Moore was taken into custody on Jan. 22 and released after a first appearance in Superior Court.
Ramos was being held in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly awaiting a detention hearing on Friday.
On Dec. 28, 2020, just before 7 p.m., the Burlington County Bridge Commission Police Department responded to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge on a report of a multi-vehicle crash.
Upon arrival, they found a heavily damaged Honda Civic and discovered that the driver had been killed by the collision. The victim was later identified as Gerardo Francisco Perez Martinez, 35, of Camden, authorities said.
An investigation found that Ramos and Moore were both returning to Philadelphia from New Jersey and, after exiting the toll booth, began speeding across the bridge without regard for the safety of other motorists, according to Coffina and Reilly.
Bridge surveillance video and witness statements concluded that Moore, who was driving a 2018 Dodge Charger, struck the passenger side of Ramos’s 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which led to the fatal collision with Martinez.
Multiple people were taken to Cooper University Medical Center in Camden for treatment.
The investigation determined that Moore reached a top speed of 112 mph, and Ramos at one point was traveling at 106 mph, authorities said. The posted speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph.
After the collision, Ramos exited his vehicle and walked away from the crash scene. He first asked another motorist to call his cell phone because he was unable to locate it in the wreckage. Police later recovered Ramos’s phone inside the vehicle he was driving, ,the prosecutor said.
Moore and Ramos are being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Josh Dennis, supervisor of the BCPO Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit.
The investigation is being conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Burlington County Bridge Commission and the Cinnaminson Township Police Department. The lead investigators are BCPO Detective Jack Bowker, BCBC Detective Sergeant Brian Laudenslager and CPD Detective Kevin Bohn.
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