East Norriton woman admits to vehicular homicide while DUI in crash that killed her 14-month-old son
NORRISTOWN — An East Norriton Township woman will head to prison next month after she admitted to causing the death of her 14-month-old son when she crashed her minivan into a SEPTA bus while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and while her child was not properly restrained in a car seat.
Arbetina Johnson-Lowery, 35, of the 200 block of Hazelton Avenue, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Friday to charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence of a combination of alcohol and controlled substances, DUI, driving under suspension and failure to have a child properly restrained in connection with the 2:43 p.m. Sept. 30, 2023, crash at Old Arch Road and East Johnson Highway in East Norriton.
Judge Thomas P. Rogers, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, sentenced Johnson-Lowery to 3 to 6 years in the Pennsylvania Correctional Institution at Muncy. The judge ordered Johnson-Lowery to report to prison on July 5 to begin serving the sentence.
The sentence included the 3-year mandatory term allowable under state law for the charge of homicide by vehicle while DUI and sought by Assistant District Attorney Gabriella Eileen Glenning.
“This is the ultimate crime that someone can commit when they get behind the wheel intoxicated and unfortunately, in this case it was even more horrendous that it was this woman’s own 14-month-old son who lost his life due to her intoxication,” Glenning said after the hearing. “Anything less than the mandatory (sentence) would depreciate the significance of what happened here.”
Glenning said the mandatory sentence sends a message to others in the community that prosecutors take DUI-related fatalities seriously and “that this is not going to be tolerated.”
The judge also ordered Johnson-Lowery to complete two years of probation, consecutive to parole, meaning Johnson-Lowery will be under court supervision for eight years. Johnson-Lowery must complete parenting classes as a condition of the sentence.
Johnson-Lowery, a mother of three other children, who range in age from 4 months old to 17, did not address the courtroom before the judge imposed the sentence.
But defense lawyer Matthew Sherman Hagarty told the judge that Johnson-Lowery is remorseful, has been sober since the incident, has been in counseling and plans to take advantage of therapeutic programs in prison to address her substance use disorder.
“She has tremendous remorse for what happened. She’s living with it every day. She’s accepting responsibility,” Hagarty said.
The investigation began about 2:43 p.m. Sept. 30 when East Norriton police responded to a report of a crash involving a Mazda MPV minivan and a SEPTA bus at the intersection of Old Arch Road and East Johnson Highway. Witnesses reported “a young child on scene, who was suffering from a head injury, was in and out of consciousness, and the mother of this child was trapped in her vehicle,” according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Anthony Caso and East Norriton Detective Jared Weiner.
Witnesses to the crash found the toddler lying on the backseat floorboard of Johnson-Lowery’s vehicle suffering from severe injuries and he was flown by medical helicopter to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he later died of blunt impact injuries to his head.
Investigators found a child’s car seat in the backseat of the Mazda, but determined the restraints were not correctly set for the toddler’s size, according to court documents.
“The locations of the straps were in the lowest level, consistent with the strap location used for a newborn or infant. The location of the straps would have been in a position too low to secure a fourteen-month-old toddler the size of (the victim) into the seat,” Caso and Weiner alleged in the criminal complaint.
Johnson-Lowery was trapped and had to be extricated from her vehicle and she was transported to a local hospital to be treated for multiple injuries.
The bus driver was transported to a local hospital to be treated for a knee injury, according to court papers. There were four other people on the bus at the time of the crash.
After obtaining surveillance video from the bus and eyewitness accounts, investigators determined the SEPTA bus was traveling westbound on East Johnson Highway when it stopped to load and unload passengers.
Johnson-Lowery, traveling eastbound on East Johnson Highway at a high rate of speed, made slight contact with the rear bumper of a vehicle in front of it and then crashed into the driver’s side of the SEPTA bus, according to the criminal complaint.
Detectives determined the Mazda was traveling between 47 and 50 mph in the 35-mph zone just prior to striking the bus.
Detectives found two empty bottles of Yukon Jack whiskey and a Newport cigarette box that contained two partially smoked marijuana cigarettes and cocaine wrapped in foil inside Johnson-Lowery’s vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
Testing on Johnson-Lowery’s blood found Bromazolam (a designer benzodiazepine drug, similar to fentanyl), methamphetamine, metabolites of cocaine and a small amount of alcohol, according to the criminal complaint.
The investigation determined that Johnson-Lowery’s driver’s license had been suspended effective Sept. 13, 2018, and the Mazda’s registration had been suspended on Jan. 21, 2023, for insurance cancellation.
Other charges of recklessly endangering other persons, careless driving, speeding and accidents involving death while not properly licensed were dismissed against Johnson-Lowery as part of the plea agreement.
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