Motorist apologizes for ‘negligence’ in crash

An apologetic Boyertown man has admitted that he was speeding and driving recklessly during a two-vehicle crash that injured a couple in another vehicle in Lower Providence.

“I am very remorseful and terribly sorry that any of my recklessness or negligence caused someone else harm. I’m very sorry,” Luke Alexander Kovitch, 20, said Monday as he pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to misdemeanor charges of recklessly endangering other persons and summary charges of speeding and careless and reckless driving in connection with the 9:18 a.m. Nov. 8, 2014, crash at Ridge Pike and South Grange Avenue. “I learned my lesson.”

President Judge William J. Furber Jr., who accepted a plea agreement in the case, sentenced Kovitch to four years’ probation. Kovitch, of the first block of College Street, also must pay $14,537 in restitution to the crash victims, who suffered serious injuries in the crash.

By pleading guilty to reckless endangerment, Kovitch admitted that he recklessly engaged in conduct which placed other people in danger of death or serious bodily injury.

The plea agreement was hashed out in the midst of a pretrial hearing at which defense lawyer Matthew S. Hagarty and Assistant District Attorney Richard H. Bradbury Jr. argued about the admissibility at trial of a statement Kovitch gave to detectives several months after the crash.

“Mr. Kovitch accepts responsibility for his actions. He does want to apologize. I don’t think a day goes by, a minute goes by, that he doesn’t think of (the victims),” Hagarty said. “I can’t speak highly enough about the young man.”

A more serious felony charge of aggravated assault by a vehicle was not pursued by prosecutors as part of the plea agreement.

“In a nutshell, he admitted to driving at an extraordinarily high rate of speed up Ridge Pike,” Bradbury explained. “Everyone recognized that this was a tragedy for everyone involved but at the end of the day the