State police have charged a Saltsburg man with multiple driving offenses for an accident that took the life of a Blairsville man on Route 22 in Derry Township in 2020.
44-year-old Martin Jason McKnight is free after posting $100,000 bond after being arraigned Friday on felony charges of homicide by vehicle and two counts of accidents involving death or injury, plus a misdemeanor count of accidents involving death or injury and summary counts of reckless driving and failure to stop at a red light.
Police accuse McKnight of running the light at the intersection of Routes 981 and 22, ramming his pickup into the driver’s side door of an eastbound pickup operated by 62-year-old Alan Lee Goldizen of Blairsville. Goldizen was taken to Forbes Regional Medical Center after the September 15th crash. After he was transferred to Allegheny General Hospital, he died from multiple blunt force trauma on October 13th.
McKnight fled the scene of the crash on foot, but he phoned the Kiski Valley State Police station the next morning and admitted he was the driver who had left the scene. He claimed to police that he had a green light but multiple witnesses said it was s steady red.
McKnight has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 27th before Derry Township District Judge Kelly Tua Hammers.
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