14-year-old driver killed in head-on crash

[Hoss68]

Randy Furst and Jill Burcum, Star Tribune
Published February 20, 2004

NEW ULM, MINN. -- Lloyd Freitag had just unloaded a truckload of soybeans in Mankato and was headed back to the small town of Morgan early Wednesday when every driver's nightmare happened: Speeding toward him was a red sedan that had veered across the yellow line on Hwy. 68 in rural Brown County.

"I thought he would turn back in his lane, but he just came at me," Freitag said Thursday. "I had no place to go."

Freitag swerved the empty semitrailer truck onto the shoulder hoping to avoid a collision.

He couldn't.

The car, driven by 14-year-old Eric Mellingen of rural New Ulm hit Freitag head-on Wednesday morning about 7:30. The car went underneath the front part of Freitag's truck. The teen, who apparently had been sent on an errand to New Ulm by his father, died at the scene.

Eric Mellingen's car ended up under Lloyd Freitag's semi.
Bruce Fenske
New Ulm Journal Via Associated Press

Authorities said Thursday that they still don't know why the 14-year-old who was driving a car registered to his father, Kevin Mellingen, crossed into Freitag's lane or why he was driving at all. The State Patrol said the boy was not wearing a seat belt and did not have a driver's license.

In Minnesota, the state issues driver's licenses to people 16 and older who meet requirements. Instruction permits are issued to those who are at least 15 years old who pass testing requirements. However, they are allowed to drive only if accompanied by a licensed adult.

The patrol said Kevin Mellingen had sent his son into New Ulm to run an errand. It appeared that Eric was returning home when the crash occurred.

State Patrol Lt. Dan Hilligoss said he couldn't say "whether anyone is going to be charged with anything."

New Ulm Police Chief Erv Weinkauf said Eric had a previous incident with police in September but would give no details, citing the boy's age.

Neighbors of the Mellingens said that Eric and his father lived in an old restaurant dinner theater outside of New Ulm that had been converted to rental property. A man at the building said Thursday that Kevin Mellingen wasn't home and declined to comment further.

Authorities said the Mellingens moved to New Ulm about six months ago. Records show that Kevin Mellingen had lived in St. Paul as recently as last year.

Nationally, about 100 underage drivers a year are killed in traffic accidents, and those drivers kill about 200 other people, according to Chris Hanna, program director of the Children's Safety Network, a federal funded program in Marshfield, Wis.

In Minnesota, between 1993 and 2002, there were 1,885 underage drivers who were involved in crashes, a large number, but still only one-tenth of 1 percent of all the drivers who had crashes in that period, according to the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety.

Alan Rogers, a traffic safety analyst with the Department of Public Safety said that while two-thirds of all crashes in Minnesota occur in nonmetro areas, underage drivers are six times more likely than legal drivers to be involved in fatal crashes in the outstate area than the Twin Cities.

There have been 77 underage drivers involved in fatal crashes in Minnesota in the last decade, said Rogers, who called the data "startling." In those 10 years, 16 drivers who were 14 years old or younger died in traffic accidents in Minnesota, of which 14 occurred in outstate Minnesota and two in the metro area.

Allen Robinson, chief executive officer of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association in Indiana, Pa., said Thursday that parents should not allow their underage children to drive.

"We have licensing law for a reason," he said. "Everybody who drives a car thinks it's simple. But it's not simple. It's a very complex machine, and it's usually in a hostile environment. Every place you drive is hostile. You have all kinds of dangers."

Freitag, the truck driver, knows that all too well.

"I feel terrible about it," he said Thursday as he talked about the accident. "He is just a young kid. He had his whole life ahead of him."

[Ironside]

The father should be charged with Involunteer Manslaughter!
This really angers me.

[odannyboy]

That father will most likely be charged with some crime, however, if he had not have admitted he sent his son on an errand, how would the police have known he didn't just take the car for a joyride? That may be a factor in not charging him with a serious offense.


Just a half-hour ago, some lady was turning across oncoming traffic in her newer Chrysler and the rear 1/4 and bumper of her car got smashed (bumper ripped clear off) by the semi that was right in front of me. The accident made the semi jump into the oncoming lanes of traffic, but at 5:30 AM traffic was fairly light and it didn't cause another accident. Lucky no one got hurt this morning.

[Timmay]

So are we debating something in this thread? I'd say the dad should be charged with something - involuntary manslaughter sounds a little light though. Whatever gets him about 20 - 30 years would be fine by me.

[Ironside]

That would be Second Degree or First Degree Murder. It would never stick. Maybe Manslaughter, but most likely Involuntary Manslaughter, I would think.

[Timmay]

Doesn't seem fair. It's stuff like this that makes me want to goto law school and become a prosecutor.

It's also stuff like this that makes me think we need to institute some kind of test before we let people become parents. I mean a basic moron test - nothing fancy, just gotta weed out some of the crazies from the gene pool.

[odannyboy]

Originally Posted by Timmay

It's also stuff like this that makes me think we need to institute some kind of test before we let people become parents. I mean a basic moron test - nothing fancy, just gotta weed out some of the crazies from the gene pool.

That makes a hell of a lot of sense. WTF are you talking about?