Driver Pleads Guilty in July Swamp Pike Crash

Arrison Renee Bunner, a Norristown resident, admitted in court that she was driving under the influence of drugs when she crashed her car on Swamp Pike in July 2012, critically injuring her passenger.

A report in the Pottstown Mercury indicated that Bunner, 22, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated assault by a vehicle. She was originally charged, according to court records, with a myriad of driving and drug-related charges, but those charges were dropped with the guilty plea on the more serious charge.

The accident injured Exeter resident Brian Blackwell, 26, who was airlifted to Hahnemann University Hospital after the crash. Blackwell was later transferred to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and then to Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital, where he remained in a comatose state.

As Patch reported the day of the crash, witnesses reported seeing Bunner throw a box out of the car into the grass along the road. Police recovered that box and according to affidavits, the box contained methamphetamine, pills, and razor blades.

Following the accident, the Mercury's article states, Bunner admitted to having taken "speed" at midnight the day of the crash. She also said she had not slept, and though she claimed that the accident was caused by her swerving to avoid an animal, she "[wasn't] sure what made me see it. If it wasn’t there, did I see something because I was really tired or did I fall asleep and it was part of a dream? I don’t really know."

Bunner faces a maximum sentence of five to ten years on the aggravated assault charge and is free on bail. She will be sentenced before Judge Wendy Demchik-Alloy on May 3, 2013.