“I’m not going to stay here and let somebody burn,” burly construction worker Michael Adams, his voice breaking, recalled saying as he defied a 911 dispatcher’s advice to stay away, instead braving the intense heat of a burning truck to pull State Trooper Michael E. Pahira Jr. out from under the wreckage.

Adams was among the witnesses who testified Wednesday at a preliminary hearing for Michael Bon, charged with vehicular homicide and related crimes after police say the rig he was driving veered off I-81 in Butler Township, Schuylkill County on July 1.

Bon’s truck clipped the side mirror of Pahira’s state police vehicle, which, with lights flashing, was parked behind a truck he had pulled off the highway for inspection.

Bon’s rig then slammed into the pulled into the truck, dragging Pahira under the cab’s bumper as it burst into flames.

Pahira, whose last words were “thank you” to Adams, died minutes after being carried by Adams and his coworkers to safety.

After listening to about two hours of testimony, District Judge Edward J. Tarantella bound all charges against Bon to Schuylkill County court.

Bon, a Haitian immigrant, listened to the proceedings via an interpreter. He remains in the county prison under $700,000 cash bail.

Authorities contend he is in the United States illegally; the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has placed a detainer on him.

Bon’s attorney, John J. Waldron of Allentown, said his client was diagnosed in Haiti with epilepsy, and suggested he may have had a seizure prior to the crash.

Witnesses

Adams, who works for Muschlitz Excavating, Bath, was working near Exit 119 when the crash happened at 7:01 a.m. He and two other men were working when they saw the smoke and raced to the scene, clambering over a fence to get there.

“The truck is on fire. I need to pull you out,” he told Pahira.

“Thank you,” Pahira said.

Adams twice tried to pull the trooper out from under the burning cab, but first the trooper’s shirt tore, then his safety vest.

The heat drove him back twice. As he readied to go back again, he could hear the dispatcher, who was on the phone with another trucker who had pulled over, tell them to get away from the truck, which was by now engulfed in flames that were sparking explosions.

The third time, Adams was joined by crew member Jamie Cameron. Together, they wrested the trooper from under the cab and pulled him to safety with the help of Todd Wolfe, who works with them.

State Trooper Benjamin Scott of the Hamburg Barracks, who specializes in collision analysis and crash reconstruction, testified that Bon’s rig veered 27 inches off the paved road as it hit Pahira’s mirror and the truck he had pulled over.

The highway was dry, with no defects that could have caused the crash. There was a clear site line for at least a mile, and the first truck was pulled safely off the road.

He said there was “ample time” for Bon to have pulled over into the left lane. Bon had started in New Hampshire was en route to Texas.

Waldron asked Scott if he had spoken with Bon’s doctor in Haiti or the United States about any medical conditions that could have caused the crash. Scott said he had not.

Waldron asked if a diagnosis of epilepsy would “have an impact on the reconstruction.”

Scott agreed it would.

Hamburg State Trooper John Sleboda Jr., who charged Bon, testified that a blood test taken shortly after the crash showed Bon had 1.7 nanograms per milliliter of THC and metabolites, components of marijuana, in his blood.

After the hearing, District Attorney Michael A. O’Pake said “we considered his ingestion (of marijuana) to be a contributing factor” to the crash.

“The law on impairment is that any amount of a Schedule 1 controlled substance is considered to be impairment,” he said.

Asked by Waldron if he had spoken to Bon’s doctor about any medical issues, Sleboda said he had not.

“He told me he had had one seizure,” Sleboda said.

The seizure was an episode of “unconsciousness between 2017-2021 in Haiti,” O’Pake said. There were no reported seizures between 2025 and 2026, when Bon held his CDL.

Sleboda testified that Bon had checked “no” to the question of whether he had a history of seizures on his Massachusetts CDL application.

Waldron objected, saying that without the application in court, it was hearsay; Judge Tarantelli agreed.

Also testifying was Walter Reinoso, who was driving the truck Pahira had pulled over. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Reinoso testified the impact of Bon’s truck broke his seat and left him on the floor of his truck. Video from his truck’s dash camera as the crash happened was shown on a large screen in the courtroom. Most of Pahira’s family left the room so they would not have to see it.

The crash happened just after Pahira was heard telling Reinoso “OK, we’re good.”

Truck driver Maurice Foster was also headed southbound when he saw the plume of black smoke from the crash. He pulled over, got out and called 911.

Foster testified he saw Bon get out of the burning cab, then get back in to retrieve his boots, which he sat down in the grass to put on.

He said Bon tried to pull Pahira from the under the cab, but the heat drove him back.

Foster said he spoke to Bon, who “looked like he just woke up, like he had just been asleep. He looked like he didn’t know what was going on.”

“I asked him if the cop had pulled him over and he said he didn’t know.”

Foster also testified that Bon had blood on his head.

Frackville State Trooper William Moyer testified that he was called out from the barracks to respond to a truck fire on I-81. He tried Pahira on the radio, but there was no response. A dispatcher at the barracks also tried to contact Pahira, but also got no response.

Moyer said he ran to Pahira where the construction workers had moved him and felt for a pulse, but there was none.

He called Pahira’s name and rubbed hard on his sternum, but there was no response.

Details

O’Pake is prosecuting the case, along with First Assistant District Attorney Michael J. Stine and Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer N. Foose.

Dozens of state troopers, wearing suits instead of uniforms, attended the preliminary hearing. Pahira’s family sat in the left front of Courtroom No. 1, the cavernous, ornate courtroom in the county courthouse.

Bon’s attorney did not call any witnesses to testify. Bon, clad in a khaki prison jumpsuit, sat next to him, listening intently to his interpreter.

O’Pake amended a summary charge against Bon to include failing to either move into the left lane or, if traffic conditions didn’t allow for that, the slow down by 20 mph if there was an emergency, police or other authorized vehicle on the shoulder of the highway.

Bon, who has a Massachusetts Class A driver’s license that was due to expire the day of the crash, was charged with homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving, careless driving - unintentional death, duty of drivers in relation in relation to emergency response area, driving on roadways lanes for traffic - prohibitions against changing lanes, and obedience to traffic control device, for disregarding Pahira’s marked pickup’s flashing emergency lights.