Bucks man gets probation in speeding case

A Bucks County man accused of injuring his 2-year-old daughter while drag racing as she sat in the backseat of his car was sentenced yesterday to a year of probation.

Nicholas DiPasquale admitted only to speeding and driving with a suspended license at the time of the accident, in which he and his daughter were injured.

DiPasquale, 40, denied that he was racing another vehicle when his and a second car crashed while traveling side by side Aug. 9 on westbound Old Lincoln Highway in Middletown Township.

"I was speeding, but I was not in a race," he told Judge Robert J. Mellon yesterday in Bucks County Court.

DiPasquale stood in court on crutches - the result, he said, of a leg injury that has left him unable to work since the accident. His daughter, now 3, was sent to a hospital with a contusion to her pancreas, Assistant District Attorney Michael Martin said, but suffered no lasting damage.

DiPasquale, of Bensalem, said he was singing to his daughter when another car "came up from behind me, out of control." The vehicles crashed into a guide rail at the entrance of the Aqua Pennsylvania Water Co.

DiPasquale entered a plea of no contest to charges of recklessly endangering another person and driving while under suspension. He admitted in court to driving at least 60 m.p.h. in a 45-m.p.h. zone. Other charges, including endangering the welfare of a child and illegal racing, were dropped.

The driver of the other vehicle, Yaroslav Dankulovich, 17, of Trevose, is awaiting trial on a number of driving offenses, including racing.

Martin said a water-company security video of the crash was inconclusive about which driver caused the accident and whether the two cars were racing. He said county child-welfare workers had investigated DiPasquale and did not remove the child from his home.