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I-79 DUI Driver Gets Jail For Highlands Teacher's Crash Death

POSTED: 6:31 am EDT September 16, 2008

The man who pleaded guilty to causing a car crash that killed an elementary school teacher from the Highlands School District was sentenced Monday to seven to 14 years in jail.

Renee Parkinson died July 4, 2007, after her car was hit from behind by Matthew Crowson's vehicle on Interstate 79 near the Warrendale exit in Marshall Township, state police said.

Crowson, 25, of Brownsville, Fayette County, was talking on a cell phone and driving with a blood-alcohol level that was twice the state's legal limit, police said.

According to police, the impact was so severe that it sent Parkinson's car over a hillside, ejecting her.

Crowson pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence and involuntary manslaughter.

Parkinson, 26, of Callery, Butler County, taught music and voice classes at Fawn Elementary School in Natrona Heights.


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