Any parent watching this video will be horrified. A Pennsylvania mom and her kids are walking on a striped crosswalk across a suburban road. Then, without warning, a red car smashes into them, sending the two kids flying across the asphalt.
Furious, their mom beats the car’s hood and, after checking if her kids are okay, angrily confronts the driver. Open and shut case, right? At minimum, this is reckless driving or even aggravated assault by vehicle, both of which can carry jail time. Those kids could have died! And yet the driver has walked away with a slap on the wrist.
🇺🇸 Jersey Shore, #Pennsylvania. A former sheriff's deputy will not face any criminal consequences after he was caught on camera hitting two children with his car, court records show.
— X News (@XNewsUncensored) May 10, 2026
Manda Haines held her two young children’s hands as they stepped into the crosswalk. In seconds,… pic.twitter.com/9L0UQaev2S
The driver is 23-year-old Gunnar Vuocolo, who at the time of the Nov. 2025 incident was working for the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office. He has since been terminated from the department, though Sheriff Kerry Stover insists the crash wasn’t related to this:
“He was actually on administrative desk duty until he had the opportunity to test for the Deputy Sheriff’s Training Academy. I did not terminate him at all for any reason. He failed to meet the Deputy Sheriff’s Training Academy criteria and therefore could not become a state-certified deputy. By state mandate, due to his failure to become a state-certified deputy within the required timeframe, he had to submit his resignation, which I had to accept.”
Vuocolo was later charged with reckless driving, careless driving, four counts of reckless endangerment, and other related traffic offenses. All of these carry potentially severe consequences, though Vuocolo is merely attending an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, which will leave him with no criminal record.
“Deputy Vuocolo, you don’t have kids, do you?”
He HIT THOSE CHILDREN WITH A CAR!!!
— Heather Sutton (@heathercsutton) May 11, 2026
He needs to be held accountable.
Haines is disgusted that the man who nearly killed her babies is effectively strolling away without consequence:
“The emotional impact on our family is profound and ongoing. What happened has changed our sense of safety and trust. … Deputy Vuocolo, you don’t have kids, do you? As a parent, all you ever want to do is protect your children; that’s your job. The emotional impact on our family is profound and ongoing. What happened has changed our sense of safety and trust.”
We investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong
— Tyler Crawford (@tyler_craw2) May 11, 2026
Is a rehab program and no criminal record really a just punishment for nearly killing two kids? Replies suggest it isn’t, and many believe that his being a cop at the time helped him dodge more severe punishment. Haines concludes:
“My children deserve justice.”
After seeing that video, it’s difficult to argue otherwise.
Published: May 11, 2026 10:42 am