Charges in Durham crash that killed teen could hinge on reconstruction of scene
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Outcome in fatal crash case could hinge on investigators’ reconstruction of the scene.
- Joseph Savarino was charged with DWI after he admitted drinking before the crash.
- Investigators may seek vehicle data and skid marks to determine precrash actions.
Experts say any additional charges in the Durham crash that killed a 15-year-old boy Saturday night could hinge on investigators’ reconstruction of the crash scene in the coming days.
Jack O’Shea was riding his e-bike on Cole Mill Road just before 9 p.m. Saturday when police said he “entered the path” of a Ford Explorer and was struck. Police charged the driver, 26-year-old Joseph Savarino, with DWI after he admitted drinking before the crash.
O’Shea, a freshman at Cardinal Gibbons High School, died at the scene.
Experts in crash investigations say authorities are likely working to piece together the moments leading up to the crash, studying factors like skid marks and vehicle positioning, which they say will be crucial in determining any further charges in the case.
“There are a number of unanswered questions, but it all has to be determined by authorities,” said former Durham County District Court Judge Craig Brown.
Savarino had a blood alcohol level of 0.11%, which police recorded nearly four hours after the crash, court records show. Brown said that time gap could likely be due to questioning that police would have conducted with the driver on-scene before taking him into custody.
“I’m going to suspect he was subject to considerable interrogation right there on the scene or [with police],” he said. “That wouldn’t stun me at all.”
Brown said investigators probing a crash scene focus on factors like skid marks left on the road to gauge how the vehicle responded to the threat. But many details of a crash investigation can remain private until the case goes to trial or reaches resolution, he said.
“The state’s doing this step by step, and I think that’s the way they should do it,” Brown said.
In an email Thursday morning, a spokesperson for the Durham Police Department said the investigation is ongoing and no further details would be released while the probe is still active.
“As additional charges are being reviewed and considered, we will release additional information related to this incident at the appropriate time,” a spokesperson wrote.
The Durham County District Attorney’s Office did not return a request for comment on Wednesday. No further charges in the case have been announced as of Thursday morning.
Crash reconstruction
Wayne McCracken — a Chapel Hill-based engineer with 40 years of experience producing crash reconstructions — said investigators rely on data captured from a vehicle’s event data recorder, known as the “black box” for cars, which records a vehicle’s crash information as triggered by a high impact. He said that data would capture details within the five seconds leading to the crash, like the vehicle’s speed and when the driver applied their brakes.
McCracken said if the vehicle’s airbags didn’t deploy, police may not be able to retrieve specific data on the crash and may have to resort to calculating vehicle speed manually based on the vehicle positioning following the crash. But it would take investigators more time to establish the details of the incident without that black box data, he said.
“It comes down to whether the airbag is going to see enough of an impact to record data,” he said. “And that is a question that you just have to do a download and see what you get. You may get nothing.”
Nighttime visibility
As the crash on Saturday occurred after dark, visibility could be the biggest question for investigators, McCracken said, as they’d focus on whether the e-bike had lights or visibility tape and whether O’Shea was wearing bright colors that would have been eye-catching.
“It’s not easy to see stuff like this at night and especially if you have a situation where the bicycle was on the side of the road or the shoulder and then moved into the travel lane,” he said. “That can happen pretty fast — fast enough that you’re not going to be in a position to do much as far as braking or evasive maneuvers in the time that you’ve got available to do it.”
McCracken said investigators typically employ a rule of “a second-and-a-half” when probing a crash scene, which is how long a person usually takes to perceive a threat and take action. Authorities would then weigh whether the driver took longer to react before the collision, he said.
He said a crash reconstruction could take as long as two weeks for authorities to reproduce and study the scene before reaching a conclusion.
“I would assume they would probably get a lot done fairly quickly,” he said.
“But it’s hard,” he added.
Savarino is the brother of former Duke basketball player Michael Savarino, who played for the pair’s grandfather and now-retired Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski during his time with the Blue Devils. In 2022, Michael Savarino pleaded guilty to a DWI charge after a traffic stop in Orange County.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 10:00 AM.
