Driver In 2018 Double Fatal Salem Church Road Crash Named, Pleads Guilty

Newark – Just after 10:30 p.m., on Saturday, August 18, 2018, Jeffrey Guseman, now 41, of Bear, crossed the double yellow line on Salem Church Road and killed two family members and injuring a third.

Guseman was behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 when he crashed head-on into a 2013 Toyota Camry carrying Raju Chanappa, 57 and Lakshmidez Hanumanthappa, 52, both from India and their son. The area in which he was attempting to pass the vehicle was a no-passing zone and marked with two solid yellow lines.

The impact of the crash sent the Camry into a ditch and it overturned on the driver’s side trapping two of the three occupants. The driver, a 31-year-old Newark man, was properly restrained and transported to the Christiana Hospital in serious condition. His father Raju Chanappa and his motherLakshmidez Hanumanthappa were seated in the back seat, unrestrained. Both were transported to the Christiana Hospital, where his father pronounced deceased, and his mother was in critical condition. She later succumbed to her injuries.

Guseman was properly restrained and transported to the Christiana Hospital with non-life threating injuries.

On Friday prosecutors announce that Guseman pleaded guilty to 2 counts of Manslaughter and 1 count of Assault Second Degree.

Friday’s announcement was the first time authorities publicly named Guseman.

He will be sentenced by a Superior Court Judge in March of next year.

 

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