Parents of teen killed in McCandless crash sue driver for wrongful death
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The parents of a Beaver County student who was killed when the car she was traveling in with five others crashed at a McCandless intersection are suing the driver.
Taylor Orlowski, 18, of Baden was killed in the one-car crash Dec. 23, 2023. Jonathan Tourney, 14, of Richland also was killed.
The driver, Aiden Saber, 19, pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and was sentenced in December to serve 2½to 5 years in prison.
On Monday, Orlowski’s parents, Heather McCandless and Donald Orlowski, filed suit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against Saber for wrongful death.
At the time of the crash, Taylor Orlowski was a senior at Ambridge High School.
According to the lawsuit, there is a local legend that Irwin Road, near North Park, is haunted and often is blanketed with blue fog in the morning.
On Dec. 23, 2023, the lawsuit said, Orlowski, Saber and others had been at a small party when they left in Saber’s mother’s 2017 Land Rover SUV.
Saber drove to the end of Irwin Road, the complaint said, and the group got out of the SUV to explore the area.
They then returned to the vehicle to leave.
“As Defendant Saber was driving his SUV on Irwin Road toward its intersection with Babcock Road, he suddenly and without any legitimate reason accelerated the SUV to a dangerous rate of speed, presumably to frighten his passengers,” the lawsuit said.
The vehicle went in excess of 75 mph despite a speed limit of 25 mph and the twisting nature of the narrow road, the complaint says.
Despite several of the passengers asking Saber to slow down, he responded, “‘I got it!’” the lawsuit said.
Saber lost control as he approached a sharp bend and slammed into a tree, ripping the SUV in half.
It traveled 400 feet before coming to rest.
Orlowski was ejected and killed.
Tourney’s older brother, Jeffrey, was Saber’s best friend, and in the car with the group that night.
He found his brother, who also had been ejected, and cradled him in his arms until help arrived.
Jonathan Tourney died on the way to the hospital.