SUV, student driver's car crash; teacher dies

Last update: August 6, 2008 - 11:27 PM

A driver's-education instructor died Tuesday, hours after he was in an accident while was conducting a driving lesson.

Neil Stoeckel, 58, was riding with a 15-year-old Chisago Lakes High School student when an SUV that appeared to have run a red light slammed into the passenger-side door of the driver's-education car at Hwy. 8 at Pioneer Road in Chisago County, the State Patrol said.

Preliminary reports indicate that the student, Ryan Merry, 15, of Lindstrom, had the green light, pulled into the intersection and was crossing Hwy. 8 when his vehicle was hit about 1:30 p.m.

Stoeckel died of internal injuries at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, the patrol said.

He was a behind-the-wheel instructor for the Chisago Lakes School District's Community Education Department. He also had taught industrial arts for 33 years at St. Francis Middle School and had served on the district's safety committee, said Jay Reker, director of human resources for St. Francis Schools.

"He was a very respected teacher," Reker said. "We're kind of reeling here."

Merry was treated for minor injuries. The SUV driver, Elizabeth Miller, 61, of Turtle Lake, Wis., was treated at St. Croix Regional Medical Center in St. Croix Falls, Wis., for minor injuries.

The crash is under investigation.

TIM HARLOW

Woman whose son shot bald eagle is fined

A 48-year-old Minnesota woman whose son shot and killed a bald eagle at her request because it was harassing waterfowl on the family property has been fined $2,500, conservation officials said.

Katherine K. Tramm, of Mora, paid her fine last month in a plea agreement stemming from the shooting in October.

Tramm "asked her son to kill the bald eagle, which was harassing ducks and swans on the Tramms' private pond," the federal citation issued to her said.

Tramm also admitted to handling the dead eagle, "which was disposed of on her property," the citation added.

The adult son was not charged, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Green Bay, Wis., which investigated the killing.

Minnesota conservation officers Dan Perron and Mike Lee responded to a complaint made to the Minnesota "Turn in Poachers" hot line that a bald eagle had been killed in Mora last fall. The officers failed to retrieve the eagle but did obtain Tramm's confession.

PAUL WALSH

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