Woman sentenced in fatal accident
A Markleysburg woman will spend three to six years in state prison after she pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle in the 2009 death of a Confluence woman. Karen Metz, 65, died in the crash. She was a passenger in a 2006 Chevrolet Impala that was driven by her husband, George W. Metz.
Fayette County Judge John F. Wagner Jr. imposed the sentence against Nora K. McKeel, 47, Wednesday after her attorney, Mark Mehalov, entered the guilty plea on her behalf last month.
State police said multiple charges, including homicide by vehicle while driving while intoxicated, were filed against McKeel after it was learned she was driving while intoxicated when the crash occurred.
The three-vehicle accident occurred around 5:30 p.m. April 16, 2009, on Route 40 in Henry Clay Township.
Police said that McKeel was driving in the wrong lane and hit the Metz’s vehicle head-on.
Then, police said, McKeel’s car hit another vehicle that was being driven by Cameron T. Villemarie of Virginia.
Karen Metz died on the way to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.
McKeel’s blood-alcohol level was .098 percent. The legal limit in Pennsylvania is .08 percent.
McKeel and George Metz suffered minor injuries in the crash, according to police.
Villemarie and the three passengers in his car were uninjured, police said.
Mehalov told the court that McKeel has expressed remorse since the crash and has learned how her actions have affected the lives of Karen Metz’s family as well as her own.
“To the family of Karen, I’m so sorry for what happened,” Karen Metz told the court. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”