By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 56-year-old Chetek woman has been charged with homicide by the negligent operation of a vehicle in connection with a head-on collision on state Highway 25 near county Highway BB February 25.
The Dunn County district attorney filed a criminal complaint containing the homicide charge on March 6 which names Barbara Jean McLennan of Chetek as the defendant.
The crash resulted in the death of a 57-year-old man from Boyceville identified by the Wisconsin State Patrol in a news release as Tony Swanson.
McLennan is scheduled for an initial appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court on April 9.
According to the criminal complaint, a trooper with the Wisconsin State Patrol responded to a two-vehicle head-on crash on state Highway 25 near county Highway F at shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday, February 25.
When the trooper arrived, the Menomonie Fire Department had responded to the scene, and firefighters were blocking traffic on Highway 25 because a maroon Ford F150 pickup truck and a sedan, a gray Pontiac Bonneville, both with severe front-end damage, were positioned across both lanes of traffic, according to the criminal complaint.
When the trooper approached the crash scene, fire department personnel informed him that the man driving the sedan had sustained fatal injuries.
After speaking with other law enforcement officers, fire department personnel, and witnesses on the scene, the trooper concluded that the pickup truck driver had crossed over the center line, traveling southbound in the northbound lane, the complaint states.
Driver
The woman who had been driving the pickup truck was seated in an ambulance and provided a Wisconsin driver’s license to the trooper that identified her as Barbara Jean McLennan of Chetek, according to the criminal complaint.
McLennan was later transported by ambulance to Mayo Menomonie.
Airbags had deployed in both the pickup truck and the Pontiac sedan, the complaint states.
A Dunn County chief deputy medical examiner pronounced the driver of the sedan dead at 1:25 p.m., and the driver was identified using his Wisconsin driver’s license photo.
The trooper met with McLennan at the emergency room and read her Miranda Rights prior to asking questions.
McLennan told the trooper she had been driving south on Highway 25 and was approaching Highway BB when three vehicles had pulled out onto Highway 25, also headed south, and said she had been going 49 miles per hour at the time, according to the criminal complaint.
White SUV
The vehicle directly in front of the pickup truck had been crowding the centerline as McLennan was trying to look around it so she could pass, according to the criminal complaint.
McLennan said when she pulled out to pass, she saw the northbound vehicle and slammed on her brakes and told the trooper she did not think the driver of the Pontiac had even seen her and that she had not observed him slowing down.
The trooper asked if anything had interfered with her view, and she said that nothing had interfered with her view, the criminal complaint states.
When the trooper asked McLennan why the crash had happened, she said she was going to pass the vehicles ahead of her and that the other vehicles were “not up to speed.”
The trooper again asked why she thought the crash had happened, and McLennan said the crash had happened when she tried to pass the vehicles in front of her.
When the trooper asked McLennan if she was at fault, she replied, “Yes. I do admit it. I was trying to get around that white car that was crowding the center line,” according to the criminal complaint.
Security cameras
Investigators discovered that there were crash scene videos taken by outdoor security cameras at Airtec Sports, which is situated east of the crash site.
The Dunn County Sheriff’s Department obtained the video and provided it to the Wisconsin State Patrol.
The first video shows Highway 25 to the north of the crash site and county Highway BB to the east. Three vehicles can be seen turning south onto Highway 25 from the stop sign at Highway BB, the criminal complaint states.
When the three vehicles get out onto Highway 25, they are ahead of the maroon Ford F150 that was involved in the crash.
The video shows the pickup truck driving up behind the white SUV and pulling into the other lane of traffic to pass after a white pickup truck traveling north goes past.
The first video does not actually show the crash but it does show what had happened prior to the crash, according to the criminal complaint.
The second video actually shows the crash itself, and the same three vehicles can be seen traveling south on Highway 25 with the maroon Ford F150 coming up behind them.
After a white pickup truck that is headed north, which is ahead of the gray Pontiac, is out of the camera view, the F150 appears to be attempting to pass the white SUV and is traveling south in the northbound lane of Highway 25.
The F150 is “directly in the path” of the Pontiac Bonneville traveling north. The brake lights of the F150 can be seen on the video, and the front end of the pickup truck drops down, which is consistent with braking, prior to the impact with the Pontiac, the criminal complaint states.
On the video, it does not appear that the driver of the Pontiac applied the brakes or tried to take any evasive action to avoid the crash, according to the criminal complaint.
Homicide by the negligent operation of a vehicle is a Class G felony that, upon conviction, carries a possible penalty of a fine of up to $25,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
