Charges against a Slatington man charged with homicide by vehicle in connection with a fatal crash in Washington Township in February have been bound over to Lehigh County Court.

Joshua Douglas Moser, 26, of 1513 Fernwood Road, chose to have a preliminary hearing before District Judge Rod Beck of Slatington on Tuesday on charges in the crash that killed Nicole Marie Gruber, 24, of Slatington.Moser faces charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence; homicide by vehicle; two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol; involuntary manslaughter; two counts of recklessly endangering another person and related summary offenses.Lehigh County District Attorney V. Paul Bernardino called Clark Knoblauch, to the stand.Knoblauch, 26, said he has been friends with Moser since high school, and on Feb. 19, they agreed to get together at Knoblauch's house.They drove to the Best Station Hotel sometime after 10 p.m., Knoblauch said, where they met Gruber and her friend.Knoblauch said he and Moser stayed for about a half-hour for a drink, before leaving to go to The Shack in Slatington.Knoblauch said he drove Moser's vehicle, a 2000 BMW, from the Best Station Hotel to The Shack, where they stayed for about another half-hour and had another drink.Knoblauch said at that point Moser was "high-strung."When they left, Moser drove, with Knoblauch in the front passenger's seat, and Gruber in the back seat.Knoblauch said they were traveling fast along Rextown Road.He said he believes the speed limit is 30 to 35 mph, but he estimated they were going about 60 mph.Knoblauch said both he and Gruber told Moser several times to slow down. He did, but would then speed back up.That's when Knoblauch said the crash occurred.Public defender Irene Chiavaroli-Johns, Moser's attorney, cross-examined Knoblauch.Knoblauch said he asked to drive Moser's car from The Shack to Knoblauch's home, but they got into an argument and Moser said he would drive since it was his car.After the crash, Knoblauch said he crawled out of the vehicle, but Moser was unconscious, upside down in the vehicle, bleeding.Trooper Michael Hodgskin of the Pennsylvania State Police, who responded to the crash, said the car was on its roof and had heavy body and mechanical damage.The air bags had deployed.He said the front of the vehicle was off the roadway to the west, on the front lawn of 8756 Rextown Road, and the rear was partially blocking the southbound lane. A trail of debris measured several hundred feet in length, Hodgskin said.Hodgskin said the evidence indicated that the BMW had been traveling northbound when Moser failed to negotiate a right curve and hit an embankment and tree stump.The vehicle overturned, rolling over as it re-entered the roadway, and continued traveling northbound, where it eventually came to a stop at the Rextown Road property, he said.An empty bottle of vodka was found in the wreckage, Hodgskin said.He said Knoblauch and Moser were lying on the roadway just south of the crashed vehicle.Hodgskin said Knoblauch, who had abrasions to his forehead, said that Moser was driving the vehicle, and that there were three people in the car at the time of the crash and that they had been coming from The Shack.Hodgskin then talked to Moser, who was bleeding from a cut on the left side of his forehead and had bloodshot, watery, glassy eyes.Gruber was in the back of an ambulance being treated. She was found by emergency personnel a few feet off the roadway, lying facedown in the grass and unresponsive, he said. She was transported to St. Luke's Bethlehem Campus by helicopter, where she was pronounced dead at 1:28 a.m. Feb. 20.Both Knoblauch and Moser were taken to Lehigh Valley-Cedar Crest.A blood sample taken from Moser revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent.Chiavaroli-Johns cross-examined Hodgskin, who said Moser declined an interview with him.Moser is scheduled to appear Oct. 24 for a pretrial conference in the district attorney's office at the Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown.He remains free in lieu of $200,000, unsecured bail.