Jasper man charged in fatal crash
Update:
Earlier this morning, the driver of the 2006 Chevrolet Colorado, Mason William Hartke, 19, of Jasper, turned himself in to Greene County authorities after a warrant was filed for his arrest.
The Greene County Prosecutor charged Hartke with three counts of operating while intoxicated with a blood alcohol content greater than .08 percent causing death and three counts of reckless homicide.
All six of the charges are Level 5 Felonies.
Hartke’s bond has been set at $60,000.
Original:
Three people died and a Jasper man was injured in car crash on Interstate 69 early Sunday morning.
According to an Indiana State Police press release, troopers from the Bloomington Post were dispatched to a car-deer crash which had occurred on I-69 near the 103-mile marker in Greene County. Troopers arrived to find a large amount of debris and a passenger car and a pickup truck near an embankment on the west side of the interstate. The pickup truck was flipped over, according to police.
The crash investigation revealed a 2015 Honda Civic, driven by David Rinehart, 46 of Newburgh was traveling southbound on I-69 and had struck a deer causing the Honda to pull onto the outside shoulder and come to a stop.
Afterward, a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck driven by Mason Hartkey, 19 of Jasper, was traveling southbound on I-69 approaching Rinehart’s location when, for unknown reasons, the truck left the southbound lanes of traffic and entered the outside shoulder, striking the parked Honda.
The crash resulted in the deaths of David Rinehart, 46, Ruth Rinehart, 74 and Sophie Rinehart, 17, all of Newburgh. Another passenger in the Honda, Josie Rinehart, 18, also of Newburgh, suffered cuts and abrasions and was transported to IU Health Bloomington.
Mason Hartkey was transported to IU Health for a fractured arm.
The Rinehart family has been notified and the crash investigation is ongoing.
The family was returning from a marching band national championship in which Sophie has performed as part of the Castle Marching Knights. https://www.facebook.com/CastleMarchingKnights/
The Greene County Sheriff’s Department, Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, Bloomington Police Department, IU Health Emergency Service, Greene County Coroner’s Office and the Center Township Fire Department assisted as well.
When will drivers learn not to drive impaired? When attitudes change and quit excusing it as some sort of minor, harmless manly/womanly right or a youthful rite-of-passage, and society is truly serious about doing something about it rather than pussy-footing around with everything from light to suspended sentences, if any at all, as finagled by attorneys and liberal judges. We need a three strikes law similar to those for other criminal offenses. Mandatory, strict and harsh from the first DUI offense which should be a year’s loss of operating any motor vehicle (including scooters, et al), a year’s probation and a $1000 fine to be paid within the year before restoration of driving. A second offense within five years of the first, or a violation of the first sentence nets a year in jail/prison without parole or house privileges, five years loss of all motor vehicle operation, five years probation and a $5000 fine to be paid before release. A third offense or a violation of the second sentence nets 20-years in prison and a $20,000 fine before release plus five years probation before any driving can be restored. If a crash with injuries sufficient to require hospitalization is caused, everything doubles – and if a death results, so will a life sentence. Costs to enforce and administer this will go up at first, but will then drop dramatically when people sober-up figuratively and literally about making better choices in saving their own lives and the lives of others.