Police charge Richland driver, 18, in fatal McCandless crash that killed 2 teens

Six teens piled into an SUV after a late-night hike in North Park, driver Aiden Saber behind the wheel of his mom’s Land Rover.

It was late December, and they all had been drinking beer, police said.

Saber pulled out of the park and “punched” the gas, according to a police account.

The SUV sped up — so much that Jeffrey Tourney, the front passenger, told detectives it scared him. He and Matthew Nicely, sitting in back, warned Saber to slow down, police said Tourney told them.

Saber, 18, of Richland shrugged them off, police said. Instead, Tourney told investigators, Saber just drove faster.

“I got it,” Saber kept saying, according to police.

But he didn’t.

Police said the SUV was screaming down Irwin Road near Babcock Boulevard, going at least 72 mph in a 25-mph zone, when Saber failed to handle a bend in the road and wrecked into a tree so hard it nearly cleaved the vehicle in half and killed two of his passengers.

On Monday, detectives arrested Saber, charging him with homicide by vehicle, DUI and other offenses and laying out previously unknown details about the crash two days before Christmas that sent communities into mourning.

Saber was arraigned Monday night and held in Allegheny County Jail after bail was denied, according to online court records.

The criminal complaint described the scene first responders found Dec. 23 when they arrived at the accident site in McCandless about 3:19 a.m.

Taylor Orlowski, 18, of Baden, Beaver County, had been thrown from the vehicle. She was dead at the scene — a wooded hillside more than 400 feet away from where the SUV hit the tree. Tourney’s younger brother, Jonathan, 14, also was ejected. He held on long enough to be loaded into a medical helicopter but died en route to the hospital.

Nicely suffered a broken wrist and possible internal injuries, police said. An unnamed minor who was riding in the hatchback compartment broke his femur.

Saber, who was assessed for internal injuries, and Jeffrey Tourney, 18, managed to climb out.

“This is another tragic day, a tragic chapter of what’s going to be a long story for Aiden Saber and the families of the deceased,” said attorney Casey White, who represents Saber. “He’s remorseful about what happened on that tragic night. … We’re taking it one step at a time.”

Prior to arriving at North Park, the group was at Tourney’s house, according to the criminal complaint.

Tourney told detectives the teens had a case of beer and “that they were all drinking prior to the collision,” the complaint said.

Tourney “believed that Saber consumed two Busch Light Peach beers” before driving to North Park, police said the teen told them.

Many unanswered questions linger about the incident — how the teens knew each other, why they decided to go to North Park and where they got the alcohol.

Jim Madalinsky, a spokesman for Allegheny County Police, the investigating agency, would not answer questions about how the teens got the beer — or whether police would pursue criminal charges against anyone who provided them the alcohol.

“The filing of charges does not mean an investigation is closed,” Madalinsky told TribLive. “We welcome any information that could provide additional answers in this case.”

Saber had a blood alcohol content Dec. 23 of 0.047%, according to police.

The state’s blood-alcohol limit is 0.08%, but Pennsylvania has a zero-tolerance law for those under 21 who are convicted of driving with any alcohol in their blood.

The Tourney family declined to comment on the charges. Heather McCandless, Orlowski’s mother, didn’t answer her cellphone. Nicely did not answer his phone, either.

The Sabers could not be reached at their North Hills home.

Ray Saber, Aiden’s father, didn’t respond to a phone call to his Richland landscaping business.

Pine-Richland School District, where some in the crash attended school, did not respond Monday to phone calls or emails.