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An Upper Darby teen was driving while high on marijuana when he struck and killed a former Swarthmore College professor who was riding his bike, Delaware County prosecutors said Tuesday.
Kali Poole, 18, has been charged with homicide by vehicle while DUI, driving without a license, careless driving, and related crimes in the death of Eduard “Teddy” Einstein.
At the time of the Dec. 3 crash, Poole only had a learner’s permit and should not have been driving alone, District Attorney Tanner Rouse said in announcing the charges.
Einstein, 39, was cycling in a bike lane on Providence Road in Upper Darby when Poole failed to properly yield to him while turning left, police said. He struck Einstein, who was riding back to his home in West Philadelphia after getting a haircut. The prominent mathematician later died of his injuries.
“This is a tragedy — an utterly preventable loss of life,” Rouse said. “The victim acted lawfully and responsibly, while the defendant made the deliberate choice to drive while high and without a license.
“These decisions had irreversible consequences that I hope our entire community will take note of.”
A warrant has been issued for Poole’s arrest, and the investigation into the crash is continuing, according to Rouse.
Einstein’s wife, Ruth Fahey, described the father of two as a dedicated family man who loved inspiring his students.
“He didn’t need much more than me and the boys. It was like he was my home, and I was his,” Fahey said in an interview last year. ”That’s kind of how we agreed that we would move around the country together as a family, and it was wonderfully freeing.”
A California native, Einstein graduated from Harvard-Westlake School before earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Pomona College, a master’s in mathematics from University of California, Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University.
He held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh, and most recently completed a three-year teaching term at Swarthmore College.