New videos played in court show moment just before deadly school van crash in Dravosburg

PITTSBURGH — Friday was a very hard day in court for the family and friends of Samantha Kalkbrenner.

The two men charged in connection to her death, Andrew Voigt and William Soliday, were in court for preliminary hearings.

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For the first time, a packed court room watched multiple videos showing the tragic school van crash in Dravosburg that killed the 15-year-old back in September.

“It was hard. I was sitting next to Nenita [Kalkbrenner] and I told her, ‘They’re at the stop sign.’ I wanted to brace her, like it’s going to be coming up soon,” said Kalkbrenner family friend Danielle LaRue.

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She was in the courtroom alongside Samantha’s parents, Nenita and Carl.

One of several graphic videos shown in court captured the last moments of Samantha’s life.

The video shows Samantha sitting on her school van as the driver approaches the intersection of 3rd Street and Richland Avenue.

He looks both ways before turning onto Richland Avenue prior to the crash.

Samantha’s mom and many others had audible reactions in court.

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“[Nenita] kind of shielded herself and let out a gasp and shielded herself into Carl’s arms. That was really hard,” LaRue said.

Dashcam video from another car captured Soliday’s Volkswagen Jetta driving erratically along Richland Avenue, at one point driving up to 107 miles per hour.

Police say he and Voigt were racing.

Soliday eventually crashed into the Serra Catholic van, and Samantha was thrown from the vehicle and pinned underneath of it.

Soliday is behind bars facing a homicide charge, which his attorney, Casey White, disagrees with.

“The Commonwealth has to establish that my client intended to injure or kill somebody,” White said. “At no point did my client intend to injure or kill anybody.”

All of Soliday’s charges are moving forward.

But the judge dropped a felony charge against Voigt, who is currently out of jail on $150,000 bond.

“The charges that were the most serious charges, the felony charges were dismissed against my client, as appropriate. There is no evidence whatsoever to show my client was involved in that accident,” said David Shrager, Voigt’s attorney.

Both Voigt and Soliday are scheduled to be back in court on Feb. 26.

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