July 22, 2025
SHARPONEPHILLY/REDDIT
Michael Vahey was sentenced to 6-20 years for killing Dr. Barbara Friedes, a CHOP physician, when he struck her bike while driving drunk on the 1800 block of Spruce Street in Center City on July 17, 2024.
The driver who was intoxicated last summer when his car struck and killed a cyclist in Center City as she rode home from her job at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was sentenced to six to 20 years in prison on Tuesday.
Michael Vahey, 69, had pleaded guilty in April to charges for the July 17, 2024, crash on the 1800 block of Spruce Street in Rittenhouse. Investigators determined his blood-alcohol level had been twice the legal limit, and he was speeding when he swerved his Volkswagon into the bike lane to get around another car.
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Barbara Friedes, 30, was a physician at CHOP. The impact of Vahey's car striking Friedes from behind sent her nearly 150 feet from the crash site, police said.
Vahey was sentenced on charges of vehicular homicide while DUI, involuntary manslaughter and other related offenses.
"This prosecution and sentence should send a message to anyone who gets behind the wheel while intoxicated that this reckless behavior will not be tolerated," Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement Tuesday.
Vahey had a prior DUI conviction in 2009 after he drove the wrong way along Pine Street near 10th Street. He had completed a court-ordered drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and that conviction had been expunged before the crash that killed Friedes occurred.
Friedes was a third-year pediatric resident at CHOP who earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine. Krasner praised the "strength and grace" of Friedes' family during the prosecution against Vahey.
Friedes' death prompted members of the city's cycling community to push for better bike safety infrastructure, particularly along bike lanes on Spruce and Pine streets. Transportation infrastructure funding included in the city's budget passed last month includes money to install concrete barriers and planters on those street, creating protected bike lanes. The city also passed a law in December that bans vehicles from stopping in bike lanes.
