A Tyrone man who pleaded guilty Thursday to causing a traffic accident that seriously injured another motorist will be sentenced after a presentence investigation is concluded.
Judge Stewart Kurtz ordered the PSI after Joshua Wiser, 21, pleaded guilty in Huntingdon County Criminal Court to operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance and to an accident involving death or injury while not properly licensed.
Huntingdon County District Attorney Robert Stewart III reported a blood test following the July 2005 crash found Wiser to have methadone and morphine and other drugs in his system. The blood test was conducted after state police found a bottle of prescription pills at the accident scene on Route 453, near Huntingdon Furnace Road.
Stewart said Wiser was traveling at a high rate of speed and failed to negotiate a curve. His vehicle hit a minivan, causing injury to the driver who sustained a lacerated liver and has still not regained full use of her left arm. The victim appeared in the courtroom.
Wiser apologized to all involved, saying, “It was never my intention to harm anybody.”
Since the DUI case involves drugs and not alcohol, it will be treated as an alcohol case at the highest of a three-tiered blood alcohol chart. Kurtz said Wiser faces a mandatory, minimum sentence of 72 hours in jail, a $1,000 fine and a 12-month license suspension for the second-degree misdemeanor.
Stewart said there is pending civil litigation in the case.
