By Amanda Dolasinski
The York Dispatch
YORK, Pa. — A bill calling for longer prison sentences for those who kill or injure emergency responders in vehicle crashes is awaiting Gov. Ed Rendell’s signature.
The Sgt. Michael Weigand Act, named for an Adams County police officer who died on duty when a man crashed a pickup truck into his motorcycle, passed the Senate last month.
The bill unanimously passed the House concurrence vote this week and is headed for the governor’s office.
The bill will give courts the discretion to add up to five years in prison to the sentence of anyone who kills an emergency responder in a crash, state Rep. Will Tallman, R-York/Adams, who sponsored the bill, said.
A judge could add up to two years to the prison sentence of someone convicted of seriously injuring an emergency responder or worker in an active construction zone.
“It was a fairly torturous process to get this bill done,” said Tallman, who sponsored the bill. “We had a couple amendments there were going to be controversial that would have killed it.”
About five minutes after the legislation passed its concurrence vote in the House, Tallman called Kim Weigand, wife of Sgt. Michael Weigand.
“She is very much overjoyed with (the bill’s passage),” he said.
Police officers, paramedics, firefighters and others are not covered under the Pennsylvania work zone safety law.
That law allows up to five years of prison time to be added to the sentence if a driver is convicted of homicide by vehicle for a crash that occurs in an active work zone. The new bill will create a separate category for emergency responders that will allow for a similar penalty.
Tim Barker, York County chief deputy prosecutor, said the legislation is long overdue and will fill an unfortunate loophole.
Weigand, who worked for the Latimore Township Police Department, was on duty escorting a charity benefit ride when his motorcycle was struck.
Weigand was thrown from the motorcycle and pronounced dead at the scene. Earl Matthew Wright, 36, of 553 Clarke Ave., York, was driving the pickup. He was sentenced to 16 to 60 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle.
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