Speed cited in fatal crash
An Acura Integra sedan, which police said was speeding down Riverside Drive early Tuesday, left the roadway, flipped and smashed into several trees, killing a passenger and injuring the driver.
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Brainerd Police Chief John Bolduc said Tuesday afternoon that there was no evidence at the scene that suggested alcohol was a factor in the crash, but that it hadn't been ruled out of the investigation.
"The evidence does suggest that speed was a definite factor," Bolduc said. "We have to wait for blood test results before we can rule anything in or out but alcohol was not something that jumped out at us."
The victim, identified late Tuesday afternoon as Stephen Ryan Mayer, 25, Ironton, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Mayer was a passenger in a car driven by Andrew Peter Gildart, 19, Brainerd. Gildart suffered non life-threatening injuries and was treated at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd and released.
Emergency personnel early Tuesday followed a blood trail from a single-vehicle crash on Riverside Drive in north Brainerd in which one man died and another was injured. The blood trail led from the crash, down a steep embankment and into a nearby garage, where authorities located the injured man. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls » Purchase reprints of this photo.
The accident was discovered about 6:45 a.m. by Riverside Drive resident Kim Sievek as he looked out his kitchen window.
"I saw a car hanging over the cliff," above his unattached garage, Sievek said.
Authorities believe, based on witnesses in the area who heard a loud crash, that the accident probably happened about 3:45 a.m. The vehicle, which came to rest upside down in a stand of trees about 20 feet downhill from Riverside Drive, was not easily visible from the roadway.
Sievek, whose house is nestled into the hill below Riverside Drive and above the Mississippi River, climbed the hill to the car, discovered Mayer's body and called 911. After law enforcement and emergency personnel arrived, a blood trail was discovered leading away from the car. A search was conducted of the area surrounding Sievek's house. Sievek said he had a gut feeling the victim went into his garage. When he went into the garage he found Gildart lying in his boat.
Terry Conradt, who lives about a half-mile from the crash site, said he heard tires squealing at about 3:30 a.m. but didn't hear the car impact the trees.
North Ambulance personnel and Brainerd firefighters tend to Andrew Gildart of Brainerd, who was injured in a single-car rollover Tuesday morning that claimed the life of his passenger, Stephen Mayer of Ironton. Gildart was found by authorities shortly after the crash was reported in a boat in the garage of a nearby residence. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls » Purchase reprints of this photo.
"I heard it coming down the road, you bet I did. It either woke me or I was already awake, but I heard the tires squealing," said Conradt while inspecting the hole punched through the trees by the car. "I had no idea this is where the car ended up. If it wouldn't have been for that last tree, it would have gone right over the hill and into that house."
The Acura came to a rest about 20 feet off Riverside Drive, and just inches away from a steep embankment that dropped to the foot of Sievek's garage.
After the Acura left Riverside Drive it jumped the curb and collided with several trees, including a large oak tree just off the roadway. The car's roof and hood were crushed by the trees and in its impact with the ground. Debris littered the crash scene, including a sweatshirt that came to rest 15 feet up a tree.
While Sievek couldn't recall a similar accident happening along his stretch of Riverside Drive in the more than 20 years he's lived there, he said he has worried that it might happen eventually. Riverside Drive, which starts in northwest Brainerd and winds between the Mississippi River and Gilbert Lake to Crow Wing County Road 49, was recently expanded and improved to just past Ahrens Hill Drive.
"It's always been in the back of my mind that it would happen someday because so many people speed through here," he said.
Conradt said it's common to hear tires squealing on Riverside Drive, and that as recently as a few weeks ago a vehicle had left skid marks on the road and taken out a few mailboxes near where Tuesday's crash occurred.
Assisting Brainerd police officers in the investigation were the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department and the State Patrol. The Brainerd Fire Department and North Ambulance also responded.
Traffic on Riverside Drive, just north of Russell Road, was halted intermittently following the crash as a crew from West Brainerd Auto Service hoisted the car on its side to allow personnel to get at the victim inside and as they righted the car and loaded it onto a flat-bed truck.
Bolduc said possible criminal charges in connection with the crash would be determined following the accident investigation. He declined to comment if police officers had interviewed the driver about what led to the crash.
An autopsy on Mayer is scheduled with the Crow Wing County coroner's office.
-Associate Editor Mike O'Rourke contributed to this story.
MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.