Pittsburgh woman gets 6 to 12 months in fatal Route 51 crash that killed her cousin

Allison Matthew stopped halfway through her court statement Monday, unable to continue because she was sobbing.

About a year earlier, Matthew had been drunk while driving a car that reached speeds of nearly 102 mph before crashing on Pittsburgh’s Saw Mill Run Boulevard, killing her cousin.

“I’ve not been able to understand how I let this happen. I will never forgive myself for that night,” Matthew said at a sentencing hearing before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.

Rangos ordered Matthew to serve 6 to 12 months at Allegheny County Jail, followed by three years of probation during which she must complete 400 hours of community service.

Matthew, 27, a radiation therapist from Pittsburgh’s North Side, pleaded guilty in November to homicide by vehicle for the crash that killed her passenger, Katherine Barvilchak, 26, of the city’s Brookline neighborhood.

The two women had gone out together the night of Feb. 6, 2021. Surveillance cameras showed Matthew getting into the driver’s seat of her car near the 2600 block of Brownsville Road and driving off about 11:20 p.m.

The crash happened seven minutes later on Saw Mill Run Boulevard, near Woodruff Street where the speed limit is 35 mph. The vehicle had been traveling 89.5 mph at impact. The crash sheared off a utility pole and caused the car to roll several times.

Both women, who were not wearing seat belts, were ejected from the car. Barvilchak was pronounced dead at the scene, while Matthew was taken to UPMC Mercy in critical condition and spent 14 days in the hospital.

Police said Matthew’s blood-alcohol content was 0.184%, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%.

In court Monday, loved ones said Barvilchak spent her whole life helping others, working with children and adults with disabilities. The loved ones described her as a gift to the world.

She graduated from Penn State Altoona with a teaching degree and certification in special education. She had been accepted for graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh and planned to start last fall.

Loved ones said she was adventurous and loved to go new places and meet new people. She was vibrant, welcoming and nonjudgmental, they said.

“She was the ray of sunshine everyone needed,” said her sister, Mary Ann Kennedy.

“Katie radiated love, kindness and selflessness in everything she did,” added her cousin, Amy Barvilchak.

In addition to the loss felt by those closest to her, Kennedy said future generations of children that now will not receive her help also will suffer.

Mary Barvilchak, the victim’s mother, cried in the jury box and rocked back and forth throughout Monday’s hearing. She did not give a statement.

“My sister’s death has consumed my mother,” Kennedy told the judge. “She doesn’t even know how to smile anymore.”

Lori Matthew, the defendant’s mother, is first cousins with Mary Barvilchak. She told the court that she will always support her daughter, but that doesn’t mean she condones her actions on the night of the crash.

“Family is very important to us, and we feel the loss of Katie very deeply. She would not want the family divided as it is,” Lori Matthew said.

She said her daughter “was and is a good kid.”

“This accident was so out of character for who she is,” Lori Matthew said.

“Allison lost her best friend. She will live with that pain for the rest of her life,” she added. “The reality is, both girls made bad decisions that night.”

In her statement to the court, Allison Matthew said her cousin was her best friend and told the judge that she is disgusted by what she’s done.

“My cousin, my best friend, my everything is gone,” she said.

She apologized to the court, to her family and to the Barvilchak family.

“All I want to do is hold you guys close to my heart and wake up from this nightmare,” she said. “I wish I had answers. I love you guys, and I’m so sorry for my actions.”

Barvilchak’s family asked Rangos to give Matthew the maximum sentence allowed by law, as well as an order keeping her from contacting them.

“Will that make you whole? Because I don’t think it will. There is no justice for what’s happened to you,” Rangos said. “I know I won’t do the right thing, because I can’t do the right thing. The right thing is to fix it. I can’t do it. I can’t fix it.”

Noting that the young women had been best friends in addition to being cousins, Rangos said Matthew will deal with the guilt of what happened for the rest of her life.

“There’s nothing I can do that will be worse than that,” Rangos said. “I think I’d want to go to jail. It’d be easier than facing life every day.”