ST. CHARLES COUNTY • A Marthasville trucker was found guilty Friday of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of two women from a bulldozer falling off his flatbed and smashing their car.
Adam L. Steinmann, 27, had been on trial for two counts of involuntary manslaughter and a misdemeanor count of driving with a suspended license. The jury deliberated about four hours before returning its guilty verdict on all counts in the July 8, 2009 crash.
Prosecutors said that Steinmann didn't properly secure a bulldozer he was hauling and that he was driving too fast.
Steinmann was eastbound on Highway D near Sneak Road when the bulldozer fell off the trailer. It bounced and landed on a westbound Mercury Grand Marquis driven by Judith Ulery, 63, of New Melle. Ulery died 44 days after the crash. Her mother, Elsie Sherman, 86, a passenger in the car, died about nine months after the crash.
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During closing arguments before Circuit Judge Lucy Rauch Friday, assistant prosecutor Meg Eveland compared Steinmann's trailer to a loaded gun with a 42,000-pound bullet — the weight of the bulldozer — in the chamber.
She said that Steinmann should have better secured the bulldozer and described the two binders that held it in place as "grossly inadequate."
She said Steinmann was driving faster than the 30 mph speed posted on a warning sign near the curve, and she added that even though the limit was meant for passenger cars, a big vehicle carrying a heavy load like Steinmann's should have been traveling even slower.
In addition, she said the tractor-trailer had more than two dozen violations, including a flat tire and several other tires that were bald.
Steinmann's attorney, Joel Eisenstein, disputed that the bulldozer was not secured properly and said instead that its brakes had failed.
Eisenstein called the crash an act of fate and said the odds of the bulldozer falling off the truck at the exact moment the women were driving by was about the same as the odds of winning the Powerball lottery.
"The bottom line is that this was a tragic accident," he said. "Adam did not grossly disregard the safety of himself or others."
After the verdicts, Rauch doubled Steinmann's bail to $60,000 and added a condition that he not be allowed to operate any motor vehicle. His sentencing is set for Oct. 30.
The maximum sentence for second-degree involuntary manslaughter is four years in prison for each count. The misdemeanor conviction carries a fine of $500 to $1,000.
A civil suit filed by relatives of the two women killed is pending.