Man charged 7 months after deadly crash on I-195 in Somerset

FALL RIVER, Mass. — It has been seven months since falling file cabinets along a busy highway caused a crash that killed a man, but Thursday afternoon the man police say is responsible appeared in court.

FOX25 was the only station in the courthouse when 59-year-old Dennis Pavao was called before a judge on charges of motor vehicle homicide by negligence, leaving the scene of a crash, misleading a police investigation, among other charges.

Police said Pavao was driving down I-195 in Somerset with unsecured file cabinets in the back of his truck when they began falling out.

“File drawers are just coming out, unsecure, and tumbling like tumbleweeds,” Christine Mederios said. Her car was nearly hit by the file cabinets.

Moments later when Philip Imprescia tried to swerve around the debris, his SUV rolled and he was thrown onto the highway and killed.

More than a dozen of Imprescia’s family members and friends were in court Thursday.

“The most important things were his four kids. It was the four of us, and we were his four aces,” Philip’s daughter Jennifer Imprescia said. “There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my father.”

FOX25 has learned that Pavao owns a number of buildings on the South Coast, including an office space in New Bedford that was being rented by the Bristol County District Attorney.

Police said Pavao was moving file cabinets from the DA’s office to the Attleboro Courthouse when they fell onto the highway.

According to court paperwork, Pavao was “aware that he had caused the fatal collision," but "failed to stop.”

Several days later when police were questioning Pavao about the crash, he allegedly made "false statements to investigators."

“That's what really hurts me the most, my brother is gone, it hurts me, it hurts bad.  I just can't believe a human being can do something like this and walk away,” Philip’s brother Richard Imprescia said.

Cox Media Group