Two people were killed and one person seriously injured when their car was rear-ended by a large SUV on the Warren Street Bypass— a weekend crash that Reading police said was caused by a drunken driver who was seen weaving through traffic at a high rate of speed.
The crash happened about 4:30 a.m. Saturday in the westbound lanes of the bypass, also known as Route 12, near Carbon Street in Glenside. That section of the road was closed for about six hours while police investigated.
The driver of the striking vehicle, Evelier Mendoza, 35, of Reading, was taken into custody at the scene, police said. He was charged with homicide by vehicle while DUI, aggravated assault by vehicle, resisting arrest and multiple counts of reckless endangerment.
Police said Mendoza struggled with officers and repeatedly bumped into an officer after he was handcuffed.
Following arraignment Saturday night before District Judge Kyley L. Scott in Reading Central Court, Mendoza, of the 400 block of North 11th Street, was committed to Berks County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
According to investigators:
Two people in a Kia Soul that rolled several times after being struck by the SUV were pronounced dead at the scene by Berks County Deputy Coroner John Hollenbach. They were identified as Ramon Leija Hernandez, 51, the driver, and Maria Z. Tineo Marte, 53, a rear-seat passenger, both of Reading.
Tineo Marte’s husband, Ramon Bautista, 68, also of Reading, who was the front-seat passenger, suffered critical injuries and was taken by ambulance to Reading Hospital. Fire and rescue personnel used hydraulic equipment to free him from the wreckage, police said.
Witnesses traveling westbound in the area told police that they saw an SUV traveling extremely fast in the left lane just before the crash.
One driver told police that she was in the left lane when she noticed the headlights of a rapidly approaching vehicle in her rearview mirror. The SUV suddenly veered into the right lane and accelerated, striking her vehicle on the passenger side.
The SUV then struck a vehicle traveling in the right lane, pushing it into a third vehicle — the Kia Soul — that rolled and came to rest on its roof.
The witness said she did not see anyone get out of either the overturned Kia or the striking vehicle, a GMC Yukon.
Another witness said he was traveling westbound in the right lane when a white SUV passed him so fast in the left lane that it felt as if his own vehicle was not moving. The speed limit in that area is 45 mph.
He said he thought at that moment the driver was going to kill someone.
Moments later, he saw the crash. He could not tell which vehicle struck which, but recalled several vehicles rolling and one hitting an embankment.
The witness approached the Yukon and saw a man, later identified as Mendoza, crawling from the driver’s seat to the back seat. He helped the man out of the SUV before police arrived.
Police took Mendoza, who was not injured, to a local hospital, where they served a search warrant for medical personnel to draw blood for chemical testing. The results were not immediately available.
The fatalities marked the first two traffic deaths of the new year in Berks County.