The crash that killed three passengers taken on a high-speed chase by their driver, who also died, in Delaware County, Pa., in April 2024
PHILADELPHIA – The Pennsylvania State Police has agreed to settle claims stemming from a high-speed chase that led to the deaths of a pregnant 17-year-old girl and three others for $4.25 million.
The agreement was revealed in federal court records filed Thursday in a lawsuit against troopers Jason Eckman and Daniel Sgambato. The latter had attempted to pull over a car driven by Isaiah Miller that was carrying six other passengers following a stop at the Shoppes at Brinton Lake in Delaware County.
Miller, Ka-Lyn Billups, Ikeam Rodgers and the 17-year-old mother-to-be, known in court records as T.M., died when Miller crashed into a concrete barrier while running from troopers. The law firm Kline & Specter sued in 2024 on behalf of T.M., Billups and two survivors – K.P. and Kemone Manning.
“Defendants knew or should have known that three of the passengers were minors at the time of the chase, including one who was visibly pregnant,” the lawsuit said. “None of the passengers were observed committing crimes of any kind.
“Despite the low danger to the public of allowing the driver of the red Ford Taurus to remain at large with alleged equipment violations and the extremely high danger of engaging in a high-speed pursuit of a vehicle with multiple unbelted minor passengers in a busy residential and commercial area in the middle of the day, the defendants engaged in the dangerous and ultimately fatal pursuit.”
The crash occurred April 24, 2024. The car had stopped at The Shoppes and passengers searched it for personal items that had been misplaced. They never entered a store after noting a gray sedan that was an unmarked police vehicle driven by Sgambato.
He followed when they drove off and attempted to initiate a traffic stop because the vehicle was “observed to have a tinted front windshield, expired inspection stickers, and a Delaware temporary paper registration obscured by a tinted license cover,” a PSP press release said. Miller pulled over but then drove away, leading Sgambato on a chase on Mill Road. He weaved around traffic at a high speed as his passengers pleaded with him to stop, the suit says, and Eckman joined the pursuit.
A dangerous left turn across three lanes of oncoming traffic put Miller on U.S. Route 322. At one point he drives through grass separating directions of traffic and nearly struck a pedestrian who jumped out of the way.
As Miller tried to exit the grass, a passenger opened a rear door to try to jump out of the car, but the car accelerated and made jumping out unsafe. The chase continued on Route 322, and the order for a spike strip was made, as Miller continued to swerve around increasingly heavy traffic.
When 322 narrowed to a two-lane road, Miller lost control of his car as he tried to pass two cars. He had clipped the front of one of them and crashed head-on into a concrete barrier on the other side of the road, igniting the car. Manning escaped through a shattered front windshield, but three were pronounced dead at the scene.
T.M., the pregnant teen, suffered severe injuries. At the hospital, an emergency C-section failed to save hers or her child’s life.
An unopposed motion seeks $1.4 million from the global settlement, reached June 24, to T.M.’s mother.