Bucks Man Faces Decades In Jail For Killing Couple In Crash

LOWER BUCKS COUNTY, PA —A Bensalem man faces several decades in state prison for causing the crash that killed a Connecticut couple last February in Bristol Township, authorities said.

John Thomas Wadlinger Jr., 32, of Bensalem, was sentenced Monday to 26 years, nine months, to 56 years, 10 months in state prison, for the Feb. 24 hit-and-run crash that killed Rebecca Whiddon, 33, and Richard Whiddon, 37, both of Brooklyn, Conn., the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said.

At the time of the crash, authorities said Wadlinger was under the influence of methamphetamine and amphetamine when he sped through a traffic intersection at a minimum of 73 mph and crashed into a Nissan Sentra, occupied by the Whiddons and two friends.

In a packed courtroom Monday at the Bucks County Justice Center, Common Pleas Judge C. Theodore Fritsch sentenced Wadlinger Jr. to state prison and ordered him to pay $14,971.11 in restitution and $8,100 in fines.

Several relatives and friends of the victims appeared in court Monday to deliver impact statements along with the two surviving crash victims.

“The pain, devastation, and shock of this tragedy haunt us every single day. We continue to struggle, both mentally and physically, as we try to process the unthinkable loss. At times, the pain feels utterly unbearable,” said Richard Whiddon’s father during his impact statement.

The Whiddons were in Bucks County for an annual gathering of friends in the urban exploring community and to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Philadelphia.

Friends and family spoke glowingly of the Whiddons, with one of the crash survivors describing them as “two spectacular and unbelievably special humans.”

“One moment, we are all happily laughing on our way to see our friends and in the next, jilted into an inconceivable nightmare,” said Chandra Lampreich, who survived the crash. “The crash had caused such carnage; I felt like I was standing in the middle of a battlefield.”

The crash investigation found that Wadlinger was speeding at more than twice the posted speed limit at the time of impact. The Whiddons were killed at the scene, and the driver and another occupant of the Nissan sustained significant injuries.

The Nissan Sentra was headed westbound on Ford Road and was attempting to make a left turn onto southbound Veteran's Highway when it was struck by a black Ford Explorer, driven by Wadlinger, traveling east on Ford Road at an excessively high rate of speed.

One of the surviving victims was hospitalized for nine days with injuries that included a collapsed lung, liver laceration, multiple rib fractures, a right clavicle fracture, and acute blood loss. She also required surgery on her spleen.

Wadlinger fled the scene on foot before police arrived.

“This was the worst crash scene I’ve ever witnessed,” said Bristol Township Police Officer John Nowicke, who investigated the crash.