Defense claims Mt. Pleasant woman’s drinking not the cause of crash that injured pedestrians

Rich Cholodofsky | Wednesday, January 8, 2025 6:21 p.m.

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Westmoreland County prosecutors contend a Mt. Pleasant woman was severely drunk when she drove her sports utility vehicle off the road and struck two pedestrians in early July 2020.

Assistant District Attorney Theresa Miller-Sporrer told jurors on Wednesday that Elizabeth Sirianni’s decision to drive home after drinking at two local bars resulted in the near fatal injuries suffered by one man who as a result of the crash suffered brain injuries that has since left him confined to a nursing home.

Sirianni, 34, was charged with drunken driving and aggravated result in connection to the Mt. Pleasant Township crash in the early morning of July 3, 2020.

Prosecutors during the first day of her trial said it was Sirianni’s third drunken driving arrest since 2019.

Miller-Sporrer told jurors 23-year-old Vincent Polito of Mt. Pleasant suffered leg and rib fractures, as well as head and brain injuries that resulted in strokes and seizures. Lawrence Grimes, 40, of Armstrong County, received a minor arm injury.

Defense attorney Brian Aston told jurors prosecutors will be unable to prove that Sirianni’s drinking caused the crash.

He said the location of the crash and whether the pedestrians were on the berm or in the middle of the road should not determine Sirianni’s guilt.

Aston suggested Sirianni’s blood alcohol content, which prosecutors contend was well above the legal limit, is not a reliable indicator to determine how his client’s driving was impacted by her drinking. He said Sirianni was an experienced drinker who could tolerate large amounts of alcohol.

“I don’t care where the heck it happened. They have to prove to you it was the alcohol that caused it,” Aston said in his opening statement. “It was a darker than dark out there. The speed limit was 35 mph and she was driving the speed limit.

“She tells the police she didn’t see them, and she stopped her vehicle immediately. Did the alcohol cause this, that is the question.”

The prosecution will argue Sirianni veered off the road when she struck the pedestrians. Miller-Sporrer told jurors Sirianni’s blood alcohol level after the crash was 0.22%, nearly three times the limit drivers in Pennsylvania are considered intoxicated.

She said evidence will show the pedestrians were walking along the berm not in the middle of the road when they were hit.

“The accident was an accident, no one disputes that,” she said. “If it happened on the berm, it happened because of her blood alcohol (content). You’ll have to determine if it happened for another reason.”