U.K. Man Sentenced For DUI Crash That Badly Hurt Four High Schoolers

In spring 2021, a highly-intoxicated United Kingdom citizen changed the lives of four Neshaminy High School students.

Shane Brolly, 25, was in America and behind the wheel of his cousin’s 2013 GMC Sierra pickup truck after a day of drinking on the night of Saturday, March 27, 2021 when he struck a Mazda CX5 with Neshaminy High School students Julia Aquilone, Julianna Mazzoni, Angelique Corsino, and Taylor Donnelly inside.

Traveling after celebrating the start of spring break, the girls, then 17, all suffered life-threatening injuries that have altered their lives and required medical care and rehabilitation.

Brolly, who pleaded guilty in the case earlier this year, was sentenced by Bucks County Judge Jeffrey Finley Thursday to 15 to 30 years in state prison. He was ordered to serve and additional three days to six months behind bars for a DUI charge and to pay $62,000 to the four victims for medical expenses, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

“You are a lucky man that you are not here facing numerous counts of homicide by vehicle,” Finley told Brolly.

The district attorney’s office outlined what the victim’s said in their impact statements before the sentence was handed down:

One of the victims described being in the car with her friends singing along to the radio and then waking up in the hospital unable to see because of fractured bones in her face. “Can I please wake up from this nightmare,” she recalled saying.

Another victim said she and her friends had spent the day celebrating the first day of Spring Break by going shopping and eating pizza and ice cream and were planning a sleepover. Instead, the crash sent her to the hospital for “three weeks that felt like three years.”

A third victim told Judge Finley that she still feels guilt because she was driving when Brolly crashed into them. Once an avid soccer player who had dreams of playing at Penn State, she recently underwent a fourth surgery to repair a fractured femur and is now afraid to go to college away from home.

A fourth victim continues to receive therapy weekly. In telling the judge about the trauma she and her friends suffered, she also wanted to thank first responders and the group of Good Samaritans who helped save their lives.    

The teens have lost months of their lives in hospital beds and recovering from serious wounds, both physical and mental.

Brolly and a friend were traveling northbound on Bridgetown Pike near Playwicki Farm in Northampton Township when their pickup struck a southbound vehicle after crossing the center line around 10:12 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, 2021. A third vehicle was then involved in the wreck.

Lab test results showed Brolly had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21 percent after the crash. The legal limit for operating a vehicle in Pennsylvania is .08 percent, authorities said.

The pickup truck head-on slammed into the Mazda with the girls.

Authorities said in a court filing that Brolly attempted to pass an Nissan SUV by crossing lanes in the area that is a no-passing zone. While attempting to pass the vehicle, Brolly’s pickup truck struck the CX5 with the teens inside. The force of the crash pushed the CX5 50 feet and caused it to roll over.

After hearing the violent crash, residents Emily and Michael Lohin called 9-1-1 and ran outside, finding the crash and the Mazda on fire.

Michael Lohin and neighbor Eli Bielawsky used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames.

“The Lohins and Bielawsky heard screaming and cries for help coming from inside the Mazda. The crash damage to the girls’ vehicle had them trapped inside.  Michael Lohin was able to remove the vehicle’s sunroof to get three of the girls out, using his shirt to protect them from broken glass. Emergency personnel were able to get the fourth victim out. The Lohins remained on scene to comfort the victims until emergency personnel arrived,” the district attorney’s office said.

Eion Quinn, Brolly’s passenger and friend, was also hurt and needed surgery.

The three people in the third vehicle avoided life-threatening injuries and were treated at the scene.

Brolly was hospitalized with injuries following the crash and was first charged while he was in the hospital.

Responding officers recovered opened and unopened containers of beer at the scene.

Bucks County Chief Park Ranger Steven Mawhinney, an experienced crash investigator who leads a countywide team, detailed Brolly’s actions in the seconds leading up to the crash.

Vehicle data and other evidence showed Brolly was driving at 57 mph and the accelerator was pushed almost as far as it could go five seconds before impact. At 1.5 seconds before impact, Brolly was driving with the pedal to the floor and the pickup had reached 70 mph. He let off the gas but failed to hit the brakes 1 second before the crash on the windy two-lane road.

Evidence showed the girls hit the brakes as they saw Brolly heading toward them. Mawhinney wrote the girl’s actions “likely saved lives.”

The crash investigation found Brolly drank in Montgomery County and then traveled to two bars in Philadelphia. In the city, he was intoxicated and was cut off by a bartender. Authorities suspect Brolly had 14 to 22 drinks in the hours before the crash.

After being cut off at the bar, one of Brolly’s friends and a bystander tried to stop him from getting behind the wheel. His other friend jumped into the pickup and the two headed to Bucks County.

It was revealed earlier this year in court that Brolly texted his cousin, who owned the pickup, and told him hours before the crash that he was too drunk to drive. He promised to return the pickup the next day.

Brolly is a foreign national who has lived in Philadelphia for the past two years. At the time of the wreck, he did not have a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license and his license from the U.K. was suspended.

Brolly is wanted by authorities in Northern Ireland for a criminal conviction he fled when he came to America.

The Belfast, Northern Ireland-based Sunday Life tabloid reported Brolly fled the territory that is part of the United Kingdom while awaiting sentencing in a case where he led police on a 16-mile chase where speeds reached 114 mph after drinking in June 2019.

Brolly, according to Sunday Life, pleaded guilty to charges that included dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol in September 2019.

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