A 20-year-old man was charged with a misdemeanor for falling asleep while driving near Rosemount and fatally striking a motorist heading the other way, according to charges filed Tuesday.
Michael W. Steinhoff was charged by summons with misdemeanor careless driving in the death last spring of Angela N. Wear, 32, of Inver Grove Heights.
Steinhoff, of Inver Grove Heights, said Tuesday he fell asleep behind the wheel as he was heading home from work at a retail outfitter.
"I didn't have any [driving violations] before that," he said. "It was just a freak thing."
According to the criminal complaint:
Witnesses to the crash late in the afternoon of May 30 said Steinhoff was driving his SUV east on 160th Street near Blaine Avenue in Empire Township and swerved into the westbound lane at a curve in the road, clipping the side mirror of a car.
A State Patrol crash reconstruction expert determined that Steinhoff then tried to get back on his side of the road but struck Wear's SUV as she moved into Steinhoff's lane in a futile effort avoid a collision.
Before an ambulance took Steinhoff from the scene, he told deputies that he had "fallen asleep, felt a bump, woke up, then struck [Wear's] vehicle," according to the complaint.
