A Hazleton man is wanted on a vehicular homicide charge after State Police say he was going 114 mph when he cut back onto Interstate 81 from the shoulder, setting off a crash that killed a Shenandoah man last November.
Rafael Ceballos, 28, faces charges of homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle, and involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 14, 2025, crash in Delano Township. State Police filed the charges Monday with Magisterial District Judge Edward Tarantelli in Frackville and have obtained a warrant for his arrest.
The crash killed Danyel Miller, 25, of Shenandoah, who was driving an Audi Q5.
It happened shortly before 6 p.m. on the southbound side of I-81 near Mile Marker 135.5. Police say it was dark, but the road was dry and the weather was clear. That stretch of the interstate is straight and level, with a posted speed limit of 65 mph.
According to a State Police crash reconstruction, Ceballos’ 2024 Honda Civic and Miller’s Audi were both heading south in the left lane, with the Honda directly behind the Audi. The Honda flashed its lights, moved into the right lane, and sped up to match the Audi’s speed, police say. The two drivers then accelerated to keep pace with each other.
As they came up on slower traffic, the Audi stayed in the left lane while the Honda moved onto the right shoulder and passed two vehicles. When the Honda came back into the right lane, it struck the rear of a tractor-trailer’s trailer and continued into the left lane, where the Audi hit it from behind, police say. The Honda then hit the trailer a second time before coming to rest in the right lane.
The Audi went into the grass median and rolled over. Miller was thrown from the vehicle, and the Audi came to rest along the northbound lanes. A deputy coroner pronounced him dead at the scene.
Crash data showed the Honda was traveling about 114 mph with the accelerator fully pressed at the moment of the first impact, police say. The same data showed the Audi was going 112 mph five seconds before the crash and 103 mph when it struck the Honda.
Investigators found no evidence that the layout or condition of the highway played a role. An inspection of the tractor-trailer turned up no safety violations.
A trooper spoke with Ceballos at the scene in the back of a McAdoo EMS ambulance. Ceballos told police the Audi was not letting him pass, so he went onto the shoulder to get around it and passed two other vehicles. He said he hit the tractor-trailer when he came back onto the road.
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The driver of a pickup truck in the right lane told police the Honda passed him on the shoulder and that the Honda and Audi appeared to be racing. He said the Honda hit the trailer directly in front of him.
Another southbound motorist later contacted State Police to say he had dashcam video of the crash. He told troopers the Audi passed him in the left lane at the same time the Honda passed him on the shoulder, and that both appeared to be going at a high rate of speed. Police say his footage matches that account.
A third witness recorded the crash on her cellphone. Police say that video shows the Honda traveling on the shoulder, hitting the trailer as it came back onto the highway, and crossing into the Audi’s lane.
An autopsy performed at the Dauphin County Coroner and Forensic Center ruled Miller’s death a homicide caused by multiple traumatic injuries.
The tractor-trailer driver and Ceballos suffered minor injuries in the crash and were taken to hospitals for treatment, Coal Region Canary reported at the time.
Along with the three most serious counts, Ceballos is charged with reckless driving, careless driving resulting in an unintentional death, driving at an unsafe speed, following too closely, and two counts each of failing to drive within a single lane and unsafe passing on the right.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Shenandoah Man Dies in I-81 Crash Friday Evening
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