Derek Johnson, 11, died earlier this year in a crash while riding his bike. (submitted)
Driving on a dark, rainy night just before 9:30 p.m. May 24, Fern Ness admits she saw and ran over a bicycle in the middle of Susquehanna Trail in Springfield Township.

After going about 30 feet, she pulled to the side of the road with the bike underneath her 2002 Honda Accord, according to her statement to police.

Not knowing what to do and never believing she hit someone, Ness continued to drive home, police said.

It was only later the next day that Ness heard through news reports that 11-year-old Derek Johnson II was killed near where she hit the bike, and she contacted her son and lawyer.

Ness maintains she never saw Johnson and fully cooperated with investigators from the start, according to police and her attorney, Kurt Blake.

"She is a very religious person with convictions and views. She wants the truth to come out," Blake said.

Ness, 79, of the 100 block of Homeland Road in York Township, was charged Thursday with accidents involving death or personal injury, a third-degree felony that carries a minimum one-year sentenced.

She was released on $15,000 unsecured bail by District Judge Walter Reamer. Ness waived her rights to a preliminary hearing.

Ness was returning home from church when she hit the bike. Blake said Ness is a very religious, Mennonite woman who has family of her own. Her family stood at her side at her court arraignment Thursday. Ness is "extremely upset" the little boy was killed, Blake said.

"It is an unfortunate

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accident," he said.

According to a police investigation, Derek failed to stop his bike at a stop sign on School Street and went into the Susquehanna Trail, where he was hit by Ness. Cpl. Gary Mainzer, a state police collision and reconstruction specialist, determined Ness hit Johnson, throwing his body 61 feet before it came to rest.

Derek died at York Hospital of multiple blunt force trauma.

Derek, a sixth-grader at Windsor Mill Middle School in Baltimore County, Md., was visiting his father for Memorial Day weekend. He was returning home with a group of children from Jacobus Park when he was hit. The boy's father, Derek Johnson, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In an interview shortly after his son's death, Johnson said he hoped the driver gave the family closure by doing the "right thing." He said he understood his son's death was an accident but he struggled with the driver leaving the scene and not coming forward.

"I know it was an accident, and (the driver) didn't mean to do it. But to just leave him laying along the road bothers me," Johnson said.

Ness wants to talk with Derek's family when the time is appropriate to express her sympathy, Blake said.

"She feels horrible about this," he said.

Also of interest

· Beauty of York County's Susquehanna Trail shrouds its dangers.