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Traffic moves along Rt. 309 (S. Third Street) in Coopersburg borough, Lehigh County. (Credit: Google Street View\/FILE PHOTO)<\/p>\nA 37-year-old Pottstown man has been charged in an April 2025 crash that left another man dead, but only with the misdemeanor offenses of Recklessly Endangering Another Person and Reckless Driving.<\/p>\n
According to a news release, David Mayers, 35, of Lower Macungie Township, was killed when he was struck by a tractor-trailer as he crossed Rt. 309 (S. Third Street) from the Exxon station located on the west side of the street to the Executive Inn.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said he will not prosecute the truck\u2019s driver, Kirk Andre Chin Jr., for the more serious charge of Homicide by Vehicle because he said the evidence in the case doesn\u2019t support it.<\/p>\n
Holihan\u2019s office said video surveillance footage recorded by businesses in the area showed Mayers \u201cwalking and talking\u201d and holding a cell phone in his hand as he crossed the five-lane road just before 3:30 a.m. on April 13, 2025.<\/p>\n
Mayers was wearing dark clothing and the lighting in the area \u201cwas poor\u201d and \u201climited to ambient lighting coming from nearby businesses,\u201d the release noted. It also noted that there is no crosswalk in the block where the crash occurred.<\/p>\n
As Mayers began to cross the street, authorities said Chin was northbound in the right lane on Rt. 309, traveling at approximately 48 mph in an area in which the speed limit transitions from 55 mph down to 35 mph.<\/p>\n
Holihan\u2019s office said video recorded inside the tractor-trailer showed that just before Mayers was struck \u201cChin was driving with his head back and his eyes closed,\u201d and that he \u201cdid not react or open his eyes until after his tractor-trailer struck Mayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
A visibility study conducted by the Lehigh County Reconstruction Team in the area of the accident determined that the truck\u2019s headlights would have been visible to Mayers as he began to cross Rt. 309, and that he entered the lane of travel in front of the oncoming vehicle just three seconds before he was struck.<\/p>\n
Traffic moves along Rt. 309 (S. Third Street) in Coopersburg borough, Lehigh County. (Credit: Google Street View\/FILE PHOTO)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe visibility study showed that until that point, Mayers would not have been recognized as a pedestrian in the roadway to a driver in Chin\u2019s location,\u201d the release said. \u201cMayers was approximately 200 feet from Chin\u2019s tractor-trailer at that point. A tractor-trailer with a gross vehicle weight of 80,000 pounds travelling at 45-48 m.p.h. requires a total stopping distance of 273 feet. At the point that Mayers became visible to Chin\u2019s tractor-trailer, there was insufficient distance for the tractor-trailer to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legally, evidence must show that a person\u2019s driving was the direct cause of another person\u2019s death in order for a charge of Homicide by Vehicle to be filed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence clearly shows that Chin\u2019s inattentive driving endangered others on the roadway that morning,\u201d the release said. \u201cHowever, it also shows that Mayers\u2019 actions of crossing a dark Route 309, while dressed in dark clothing, and entering the path of the tractor-trailer was a factor in causing this crash. \u201c<\/p>\n
The news release said that in addition to surveillance footage from nearby businesses and the visibility study, the DA\u2019s office and Coopersburg Police relied on an inspection of Chin\u2019s tractor-trailer, interviews with several witnesses and the results of a full crash reconstruction before reaching the decision announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
Chin was released on $25,000 unsecured bail following a preliminary arraignment Thursday before District Judge Daniel Trexler in Coopersburg. According to the docket filed in his case, a preliminary hearing before Trexler is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 23 at 8:15 a.m.<\/p>\n
The docket did not list an attorney for Chin.<\/p>\n
Note:\u00a0All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using information provided by the Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s office and Lehigh County court records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 37-year-old Pottstown man has been charged in an April 2025 crash that left another man dead, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1874,153,155,154,3229,5943,347,11533,351,433,1020,41216,1704],"class_list":["post-81707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-accident","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-charges","tag-coopersburg","tag-crash","tag-da","tag-fatal","tag-lehigh-county","tag-pedestrian","tag-route-309","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81707","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=81707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}