James R Coyle, Jr
killed by a hit and run driver 6/19/2005 |
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A Hit & Run is not necessary. If you drive you should be responsible and have control of your car at all times. And God forbid something does happen, and maybe you really couldn't control it. Well step up and take control of what you have done and pay the consequences. But don't run and flee the scene and leave some helpless person on the road like they are peice of trash. To you they may be nothing but that is someone else's brother, sister, son, daughter, father, mother, husband, wife, cousin, and or friend. Put yourself in their shoes! Jimmy you didn't deserve to die all alone like you did that night. You will be loved and missed for eternity. Colleen Coyle
By Harry Yanoshak copyright Bucks County Courier Times BRISTOL TOWNSHIP - Though police say they didn't know each other, James Coyle Jr. and Jonathan Hernandez had gone to the same graduation party hours before a hit-and-run driver struck Coyle with Hernandez's van. Bristol Township police intend to check whether the party on Maple Avenue and the accident less than a mile away on Newport Road were somehow connected, Officer Anthony DeSilva said. Coyle, 21, of Middletown had gone to the party Saturday with his 23-year-old sister, Colleen, who was the designated driver, their parents said in an interview Tuesday. Also there was Hernandez, whose GMC van struck and killed Coyle as he walked on Newport Road about 1:15 a.m. Sunday, police said. Hernandez, 20, told police two hours after the accident that he wasn't the driver, and that he didn't know who had driven his van, according to a search warrant. The van wasn't reported stolen, however, police said. Hernandez lives on Steele Avenue in Bristol Township with his parents and his father's coworker. All have been interviewed, and the house has been searched for clothing and other evidence that could be linked to the accident, police said. The vehicle also will be searched, police said. Police found the abandoned van on Grundys Lane, less than a mile from where Coyle's body was found. According to police, Hernandez has "fresh abrasions" on his left elbow that he explained as injuries from an ATV accident in front of his house at 10 p.m. Saturday. A second man in the house had electrical tape and gauze around his left arm. He said he was injured in a "wrestling match" the previous night, according to the search warrant. Hernandez is scheduled for a trial today in Bucks County Court for an unrelated drunken driving charge. Middletown police in February stopped him for erratic driving in the same Levittown neighborhood where Coyle lived with his family.
At the Coyle home Tuesday night, his parents, brother, older sister and an
aunt and an uncle gathered on the
back On the living room floor lay photographs of "Jimmy" that the family wanted to display during his memorial service. Jimmy graduated from Bucks County Technical High School as a skilled cabinetmaker, but his interests eventually turned to landscaping and horticulture. He had plans to further his schooling in that field, his parents said. "He just found out his path," said his father, a machinist for a Trevose company. Jimmy worked the past two months as a landscaper at Pennswood Village retirement community in Middletown. He took to the work partly because he enjoyed being outside and partly because he had good training from his uncle, who owns a landscaping company in Florida, his mother, Deborah, said. At 6 feet, 3 inches tall and about 210 pounds, his mother called him her "gentle giant." She said he made friends easily because he was comfortable talking to anybody. On Thursday, Jimmy trimmed the hedge out back and explained to his father the art of felling a tree properly. Pennswood Village on Friday gave him new pruning pliers and a pruning saw, and he proudly brought them home for his dad to engrave with his initials. Coyle's parents and older sister say they don't know why Jimmy decided to walk along Newport Road after leaving the party, and they say they don't have any details about the police investigation into the hit-and-run. Deborah Coyle said Jimmy called from the party to say he was going to stay longer even though his sister was going to leave, and that he planned to meet up later with a friend. Jimmy wasn't the type of person who would get into a car with a drunk driver, which is why his mother and father believe he decided to walk home from the party after his sister had left. "If he would have called, we would have picked him up," Deborah said. He wasn't carrying his cell phone, which was broken, or his wallet, his mother added. Colleen arrived home to find her mother awake and waiting. Deborah said Colleen immediately left the house and went looking for her brother. She drove on Newport Road and was stopped for the accident. Soon, police were asking Colleen to identify her dead brother, her mother said. Not only was Sunday Father's Day, but it was also the birthday of Jimmy's younger sister, Erin, who turned 8. The death also came two weeks after Jimmy's grandfather, his fishing buddy, had died, the family said. Services will be 7 to 9 tonight at Beck-Givnish Funeral Home, 7400 New Falls Road, Bristol Township. The funeral Mass will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Queen of the Universe Church, Trenton Road, Middletown. Memorial contributions are to be made to the Bucks County Technical High School Education Fund for a scholarship in Jimmy's name. "He was 21 and bulletproof. When you're at that age, you think nothing's going to happen to you," James Coyle Sr. said. "You try to protect your children as much as you can." Added his brother, Dugan, who's 11: "But you never think to tell him watch out when you're walking." Bristol Township police investigating the hit-and-run would like anyone with information to call 215-785-4041 or 215-785-4052.
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porch
to talk about the creative young man who had just found his niche in life.