Police: Motorist In SEPTA Train Accident Charged With DUI

The Haverford-Havertown Patch has just learned that the driver of the car that was struck by a SEPTA train early Thursday morning and left 24 passengers injured has been charged with DUI.

In an email to Patch, Haverford Township Police Chief Carmen Pettine said that Brian James Manning, 29, has been charged with the following:

• DUI
• 26 counts of Reckless Endangerment
• Risking a catastrophe

Jim Marino, the Haverford Township fire marshal, said early Thursday morning that Manning's Toyota Camry was struck by a SEPTA train that left 24 people injured. Marino originally said 22 were injured.

The 4:25 a.m. accident happened about 75 yards away from the Beechwood-Brookline Station at a SEPTA substation along Karakung Drive, Marino said.

Manning, of the 300 block of Valley Road in Havertown, was "apparently ... disoriented" and managed to drive his car on the tracks and "got stuck there," Pettine stated.

"There was probable cause to arrest him for DUI," Pettine wrote.

The driver called his wife and AAA about the accident and then a Route 100 Norristown High-Speed SEPTA train hit the car, Marino said.

Twenty four people on the train were injured and were taken to area hospitals, he added, but said the driver was OK. Heather Redfern, a press officer with SEPTA, told Patch in a phone interview that the injuries were non-life threatening and the operator of the train was not injured.

While there was one line being used during the clean up, Redfern said the track is fully operational and that the train is currently being inspected because of the minor damages it suffered.