Credit: Amanda Kuehnle/LevittownNow.com
A 23-year-old Lower Makefield man who was drunk when he caused a fatal crash in Falls Township will serve several years in prison.
Michael Ahearn was sentenced to five years and three months to 10 years and six months in a state correctional facility Friday. He caused the crash that killed 23-year-old Kaitlin Abel during the night of October 30. Authorities have said he drove the wrong way while speeding down Route 13 without headlights into oncoming traffic in the moments leading up to the wreck. According to the probable cause affidavit, Ahearn struck Abel’s vehicle head-on, pushing it into an embankment and leading to her death.
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Investigators wrote in court papers that Ahern had “full access” to alcohol located at the restaurant job he worked in the hours before the fatal wreck.
According to court papers, Ahearn had a blood alcohol level of .230 percent. The legal limit to drive is .08.
Credit: Submitted
Abel was a graduate of Villa Joseph Marie and La Salle University. According to mutual friends, Ahearn and Abel knew each other and had previously worked together at Sesame Place in Middletown.
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Friends and family of both Abel and Ahern packed the Doylestown courtroom where the sentencing was held.
“Whatever time you give me is well deserved,” Ahearn said before the judge, according to the Doylestown Intelligencer. “All I can say is that I’m terribly sorry.”
Click here to read more from The Intelligencer about Friday’s sentencing.
