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State Police Expertise Sought In North Versailles' Thanksgiving Day Tragedy

NORTH VERSAILLES (KDKA) -- Traffic was detoured in North Versailles Tuesday night as a State Police Accident Reconstruction Unit investigated at the scene of a Thanksgiving Day crash that claimed the lives of a family of three.

The reconstruction unit is made up of highly-trained troopers and other experts who took photographs and measurements of the scene at the busy intersection of Routes 30 and 48.

The investigators mapped the collision course, and at the same time, were trying to determine how fast the vehicles were going at the time of the deadly crash.

The accident happened last Thursday afternoon when the car being pursued by police T-boned another car occupied by David Bianco, his fiancée, Kaylee Meininger, and her daughter, 2-year-old Annika.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said, "Right now, the speed of both the defendant and the speed of a North Versailles police officer behind the defendant are an issue."

A car, driven by 22-year-old Demetrius Coleman, was involved in a traffic stop about two miles from where the crash occurred.

Coleman sped away from the stop, pursued by a North Versailles officer. At times, Coleman's speed was estimated at 100 miles an hour before the accident.

Zappala said the three victims died instantly. That official word, he said, came from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office.

"There was no smoke in the victim's lungs," said Zappala.

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Coleman and his female passenger were both hospitalized, but escaped serious injury.

Zappala said, "Coleman's companion in the car, Asia Camp, had 42 stamp bags of heroin. She said they were out selling heroin earlier in the day; they, meaning both her and Coleman."

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