The father of a 16-year-old girl killed in a car wreck July 1 has undertaken a private investigation of the accident in the hopes of proving that another car, and not high speed, caused his daughter’s death.
Wendy L. Ware was killed when her 1990 Honda Prelude crashed into a tree at 1640 Rhorer Road around 12:20 p.m. July 1.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department blamed Ware’s death on ”unreasonable high speed.” The report by deputy Mike Smith said Ware lost control of her car after cresting a hill.
A reconstruction of the accident done the following day by a private firm concluded that Ware was traveling about 64 mph at the time of the accident. The speed limit on that section of Rohrer Road is 30 mph.
There is no mention on the sheriff’s department report of another car involved in the accident.
But Stephanie Hein, 16, a passenger in the car at the time, remembers some kind of vehicle heading toward them just before the wreck occurred.
Hein, of Bloomington, is recuperating with relatives in Indianapolis and could not speak with The Herald-Times.
But her mother Kathleen Hein confirmed her daughter’s account, though she added that her daughter, who suffered a fractured left thigh in the accident and is experiencing bouts of amnesia, cannot remember anything else about the vehicle, including what color it was or whether it was a car or truck.
”Stephanie wants to help. But that’s all she can remember,” her mother said.
Based on Stephanie’s recollection, however, Wendy Ware’s father, David Ware, hired a reconstructionist from Indianapolis to review the accident. Results from that investigation will not be available until next week.
Ware began running advertisements in The Herald-Times Thursday, asking for the driver of the car that Stephanie Hein said she saw to ”please come forth and correct the initial report about Wendy Larissa Ware’s accidental death.”
Ware’s reasons for his actions are simple, he said. ”My belief is that the presence of the other car and the treacherousness of that stretch of road were the primary causes of the accident, not unreasonable speed.” He said he estimates that at the time his daughter was driving 40-45 mph at the most.
The sheriff’s department said it would welcome any new information about the accident.
Investigating deputy Smith said Stephanie Hein did not mention another car when he spoke to her in Bloomington Hospital’s emergency room on the day of the accident.
Chief Deputy David Toumey, who oversees the department’s patrol division, said until Stephanie Hein is able to be re-interviewed or a driver of a car on Rhorer Road that day appears, the department stands by its initial report.
Source: Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN) – Sunday, July 14, 1991
