Brandy Mowry sobbed as she told a judge the 2002 crash that killed two of her friends at a Hempfield Township railroad crossing will haunt her forever. "It was never my intention to put anyone in danger," she said, her voice trembling. "I would switch places with both boys if I could, without hesitation." Mowry, 23, of West Newton, was sentenced to four years of probation on Friday by Westmoreland County Judge John E. Blahovec. She also is subject to a driver's license suspension by PennDOT. Mowry pleaded guilty in March to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and several traffic charges. Police accused her of driving negligently when she pulled her 1999 Saturn in front of a 4,400-foot Norfolk Southern freight train on May 30, 2002. The car landed more than 100 feet from the point of impact. The crash killed passengers Franklin Kalish, 16, and Drew Myers, 18, both of Manor. Mowry, who was 19 at the time, and another teenager, Jeremy Mason, were hospitalized. Myers was preparing to graduate from Hempfield Area High School. Kalish was a sophomore in the school's vocational-technical education program. Court documents state an investigating officer found a glass smoking pipe in Mowry's car. Blood testing indicated Mowry had smoked marijuana, records show. She never was charged with impaired driving, and evidence supporting a paraphernalia charge was suppressed. Judge William J. Ober ruled in December 2003 that the police did not properly search Mowry's car, so the pipe could not be used as evidence. Ober further ruled that the blood testing results could not be used because the warrant to obtain the blood was issued based on statements Mowry made about the confiscated pipe. Calling Ober's ruling "internally flawed and inconsistent," prosecutors appealed the decision to the state Superior Court, but lost. Assistant District Attorney Tom Grace said the case is tragic but was caused by Mowry's reckless driving. He contends she should have known a train was coming. One woman previously had testified that the train's whistle was blowing so loudly that she couldn't hear the crash, but she did see the wrecked car tossed from the tracks. Grace asked Blahovec to impose a lengthy probation term. Defense attorney Caroline Roberto, of Pittsburgh, argued that the Wegley crossing is inherently dangerous and asked that Blahovec show mercy. Going over the tracks means making a sharp turn up a grade in the road. The crossing was marked by reflective crossbucks but not an active warning device. Paramedic Stephen C. Zimmerman wrote a letter to elected officials several days after the crash that was presented in court yesterday. It reads, in part, "This was a needless tragic accident that may have been prevented if a railroad crossing gate had been in place." The crossing was the site of a similar fatal accident 10 years before. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission closed the crossing to motorists after the Mowry crash. Myers' parents attended the roughly 30-minute sentencing hearing but declined to speak. Mowry's mother, Patricia, read a prepared statement, apologizing for the grief caused by the accident. "Brandy's life will never be the same because she will never get over this," she said. Roberto said Mowry had been taking classes at California University of Pennsylvania, but had to quit because of the depression she's been coping with since the crash. Blahovec said he didn't consider Mowry to be a danger to society. He said Mowry's memory of the crash will follow her through life despite anything that happens in court and that even the stiffest sentence wouldn't bring back her friends. "If anyone gets a big ego from wearing a black robe, it only takes a case like this to show them how inadequate the law is to remedy what's going on," the judge said.

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