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Original: Nearly a year after a fiery crash caused siblings to die of burns and smoke inhalation, police have announced that they have filed charges against the driver who caused the deadly crash.
Cesar Torres, 38, of Florida has been charged in connection with the deaths of Brandie Kasper, 21, and her younger brother, Lenny, 18, Northern Lancaster County police say.
Torres had been heading south in a car-carrier tractor-trailer on Main Street/RT 72 when he slammed into the side of the siblings' pickup truck Graystone Road in East Petersburg around 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 22, 2021, according to the police at the time.
The pickup rolled over onto its roof trapping the Kasper siblings inside as their pickup caught fire— they died of "smoke inhalation and thermal burns and multiple traumatic injuries they received as a result of the collision," according to the Lancaster County coroner’s office autopsy results.
The tractor-trailer also became engulfed in flames, but Torres was unharmed, according to officials.
Torres went through a steady red traffic light at 31-33 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone, while the Kaspers went through a green light at approximately 7.5 miles per hour, according to the results of the police investigation.
No mechanical defects or failures caused Torres to do this— making him "the sole contributor to the cause of the collision," police say.
He had "failed to stop for a clearly visible red traffic signal even though he had sufficient time and distance to see the light and come to a controlled stop prior to the intersection," police state in the release.
Torres has been charged with two counts each of homicide by vehicle, a third-degree felony, involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree misdemeanor, and a summary offense of failure to stop at a red signal and driving at a safe speed, according to the release by the police.
Torres has not been arrested as of Thursday morning, according to court records.
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