Driver, reportedly going 120 mph while drunk, charged one year after fatal crash
Published 10:24 am Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Debris, a downed tree and a telephone pole are strewn across a yard on Fourth Street Southeast after two men died in a car crash in February 2012. — Herald file photo
The driver in a crash that nearly one year ago killed Austinites Jake Moe and Luke Unverzagt has been charged with six varying counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
Moe
Jason Fredrickson, 44, of Elkton, was charged Tuesday morning in Mower County Court with two counts each of: criminal vehicular homicide for blood alcohol more than .08, criminal vehicular homicide with negligence under the influence of alcohol, and criminal vehicular homicide for operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner. All charges are felonies.
The report states Fredrickson, Moe, Unverzagt and their spouses were drinking at the Unverzagt home before going to a bar in Lyle and returning after midnight.
Fredrickson reportedly left with Unverzagt and Moe at about 1:47 a.m. and crashed several minutes later. A man who drove by the scene reported the crash at about 1:50.
Unverzagt
According to the court complaint, Fredrickson drove a 2009 Cadillac STS into the ditch at about 120 mph on Feb. 25, while front passenger Moe, 32, and rear passenger Unverzagt, 32, rode with him. The state patrol’s reconstruction of the fatal crash states the car crossed County Road 28 going north, swerved into the wrong lane and into the ditch, went airborne, snapped a utility pole and stopped after hitting a tree and another utility pole at 2810 Fourth St. SE. Sheriff Amazi describe the car as “obliterated.”
Both Unverzagt and Moe were ejected from the vehicle. Unverzagt died at the scene, while Moe was transported to the Mayo Clinic Health System — Albert Lea and Austin where he was pronounced dead.
Fredrickson was partially ejected from the vehicle and fractured his ankle, which is an injury consistent with stomping on the brake before such a crash, the report adds. Fredrickson went to the hospital in Austin and later to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester where he spent a short time in intensive care. The report states Fredrickson’s blood alcohol level was .126 at the hospital at 2:30 a.m. and later tested at .06 at 5:18 a.m. and adds Fredrickson admitted to driving the vehicle.
Fredrickson has an appearance in Mower County Court set for March 21. The maximum sentence for criminal vehicular homicide is 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Fredrickson declined to comment for this story.
