Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Burlington County Bridge Commission Public Safety Director Patrick J. Reilly announced that two Philadelphia men who were traveling at a high rate of speed on the Tacony-Palmyra bridge late last year have been charged with causing a five-car collision that killed one of the drivers.
Jonathan Ramos, 28, of the 500 block of East Louden Street, was charged with vehicular homicide (second degree), leaving the scene of a fatal accident (second degree), causing death while driving with a suspended license (third degree) and endangering an injured victim by leaving the scene without rendering aid (third degree). Ramos surrendered with his attorney yesterday at the Prosecutor’s Office in Mount Holly.
Brandon Moore, 23, of the 1400 block of McKinley Street in Philadelphia, was charged with vehicular homicide (second degree) and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child (third degree).
Moore was taken into custody Jan. 22 and released following a first appearance in Superior Court. Ramos is presently lodged in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly and has a detention hearing scheduled for March 5. The cases against the defendants will be prepared for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment.
The investigation began on Dec. 28 just before 7 p.m., when the Burlington County Bridge Commission Police Department responded to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge for a report of a multi-vehicle crash.
Upon arrival, they observed a heavily damaged Honda Civic and discovered that the driver had been killed by the collision. The decedent was later identified as Gerardo Francisco Perez Martinez of Camden.
The investigation revealed that Ramos and Moore were both returning to Philadelphia from New Jersey and, after exiting the toll booth, began speeding across the bridge without regard for the safety of other motorists.
Bridge surveillance video and witness statements concluded that Moore, who was driving a 2018 Dodge Charger, struck the passenger side of Ramos’s 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which led to the fatal collision with Martinez.
Multiple people were taken to Cooper University Medical Center in Camden for treatment.
The investigation determined that Moore reached a top speed of 112 mph, and Ramos at one point was traveling at 106 mph. The posted speed on the bridge is 45 mph.
Following the collision, Ramos exited his vehicle and walked away from the crash scene. He first asked another motorist to call his cell phone because he was unable to locate it in the wreckage. Police later recovered Ramos’s phone inside the vehicle he was driving.
Moore and Ramos are being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Josh Dennis, supervisor of the BCPO Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit.
The investigation is being conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Burlington County Bridge Commission and the Cinnaminson Township Police Department. The lead investigators are BCPO Detective Jack Bowker, BCBC Detective Sergeant Brian Laudenslager and CPD Detective Kevin Bohn.
All persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
