WASHINGTON TWP., Pa. \u2013 It’s been just over a year since a wrong-way crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike killed 50-year-old John Sweeney of Bristol, Bucks County.<\/p>\n
The driver, 25-year-old Onanyeli Rosario-Mesa of Allentown, faces multiple charges including DUI and vehicular homicide. She still remains at large, while an arrest warrant has been issued for her.<\/p>\n
For the first time since the crash that killed his father, Sweeney\u2019s son Colin is speaking out.<\/p>\n
March 30, 2025, is a day that haunts Colin Sweeney.<\/p>\n
“It’s just hard some days, waking up and hoping I’m able to call my father and not being able to,” Sweeney told 69 News.<\/p>\n
He, his father John, and four others were riding their motorcycles on the turnpike until 25-year-old Rosario-Mesa allegedly came barreling towards them in her Honda HRV.<\/p>\n
Rosario-Mesa, who investigators say was intoxicated behind the wheel, was allegedly driving southbound in the northbound lanes for several miles. John Sweeney, Colin’s attorney says, had no time to react and was fatally struck. Colin survived by inches.<\/p>\n
“My dad was a good man. He was very proud of me and my brother Tyler. He was always there for us. He was the type who gave you the shirt off his back any time you needed it,” Colin explained.<\/p>\n
This is the second time the Sweeney\u2019s lost a loved one to drunk driving.<\/p>\n
“We lost my cousin back in 2005 to a drunk driver,” Colin recalled.<\/p>\n
Attorney Fred Karpf is representing Colin Sweeney and knew John for years.<\/p>\n
“What do you say to someone who would drive intoxicated? This takes that to a whole new level. For you to get to a level of intoxication where you knowingly drive the wrong way on the turnpike\u2026in an instant, she destroyed John’s life and permanently affected Colin’s,” Karpf said.<\/p>\n
While the year-long investigation and recent charges seem lengthy on the outside, Karpf and Colin Sweeney have nothing but praise for the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office, who has met with them monthly since the investigation began.<\/p>\n
“They have really put together a great case,\u201d Karpf said. \u201cObviously, her being on the run was a possibility but that only adds to the proof of her culpability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colin, who is a lieutenant at Newportville Fire Co., has one request so that his family can have closure.<\/p>\n
“I would hope she would have it in her heart to turn herself in,” Sweeney concluded.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Rosario-Mesa is urged to call 911.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON TWP., Pa. \u2013 It’s been just over a year since a wrong-way crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,197,74416,37825,18837,69407,1816,73350,4696,61493,52036],"class_list":{"0":"post-165118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-bucks-county","12":"tag-colin-sweeney","13":"tag-drunk-driving","14":"tag-dui","15":"tag-john-sweeney","16":"tag-lehigh-county-district-attorney","17":"tag-onanyeli-rosario-mesa","18":"tag-pennsylvania-turnpike","19":"tag-vehicular-homicide","20":"tag-wrong-way-crash"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}