CHARLES CITY – A Charles City woman charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter after a fatal car-motorcycle accident last May has pled not guilty.
Stephanie Mercer, age 23 of Charles City, will be in Floyd county court on September 2 for an arraignment hearing. On July 10th, two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter were brought by Floyd county prosecutor Normand Klemesrud against Mercer. On August 14, Mercer pled not guilty to the charges.
Allegedly, Mercer was eastbound on Highway 18 on May 21st east of Nora Springs, driving a 2003 GMC Envoy when 66-year-old David Crowe’s 1992 Harley-Davidson motorcycle slowed in front of her to make a right turn on Dancer Avenue. Crowe was struck by Mercer’s vehicle, throwing him from his motorcycle and leaving him dead.
Mercer was not hurt. She was later ticketed for failure to stop in an assured clear distance. That ticket was dismissed on May 30th.
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Our society today thinks every time something bad happens it must be attributed to some reckless behavior. Sorry folks, sometimes things just happen. That’s why we call them accidents. Wrong place at the wrong time. A tragedy for sure but pointing fingers will not bring Mr. Crowe back to life.
Yet Worth County declined to bring up charges against Nicole Streets for running through a stop sign and killing small children. Sorry to bring this wound up again, but it underscores the flawed, inconsistent justice system that makes up North Iowa if not the rest of the world.
This was bad. Really ugly. But the damage is already done. No ruling will bring David back. I’m certain this woman learned a valuable lesson that will haunt her for the rest of her life. But a long prison sentence isn’t the answer. The accident itself will turn out to be the worst punishment this woman could receive. Nothing brings David back.
I’m sure there will be a large cash settlement, as there should be.
I just can’t understand how you can plead not guilty, when you did it. The person you ran into is dead, and his family is mourning. What was more important then paying attention while driving, cell phone, putting on make up, what…
@Allen-I have hear rumors (and rumors is all) that she has had other distracted driving problems. I also heard a rumor that she was texting when she hit him. One thing for sure, she sure wasn’t paying attention to the road or she wouldn’t have hit him. If I had to bet I would say she is looking to plea bargin.
You know it makes me wonder why the smart phone / cell phone companies haven’t come up with a way to block being able to text while you are driving or travelling in a car. I’d think they’d be able to calculate this by GPS matched rate of speed fluctuations. I think such a measure needs to be put in place. I’ve heard they have an app and breathalyzer device you can hook up to your smart phone to stop you from drunk texting. Texting is a problem for drivers. I concur.
Because it would also block a passenger from using his/her cell phone.
If it just blocked texting and internet usage that would be an acceptable tradeoff. Confine cellphone usage to calls only if the vehicle is moving. If it comes to a stop then texting and internet use would resume.
Once again, hold people RESPONSIBLE for their own actions instead of punishing the rest of us.
@Joao-He is giving the typical liberal response to a problem. Attack and punish everyone for one persons mistakes.
I see it as much more elaborate than just admonishing people with a Libertarian caveat and sending them on their way. It’s more like releasing a new type of ammunition for a gun that is cheap to make, easy to reload, but has the unconfortable side effect of exploding at temperatures above 115 degrees F. Yes you could warn people and proceed with manufacturing and sales, but it wouldn’t really be ethical to just stop at a warning would it? (Gun example used colloquially).
Do you really want that much intrusion in your day to day communications? I thought you were more of a civil libertarian.