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GoogleWiltgen was initially transported to Floyd Valley Hospital and later life flighted to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City.
The driver of the vehicle, Jeremy Murfin, of Le Mars, said he was traveling eastbound on 12th St. S.E. when Wiltgen stepped in front of his vehicle.
Le Mars Police were called to the 300 block of 12th St. S.E. at about 10:44 p.m.
According to the police, Murfin was given a sobriety test and was found to be intoxicated. He was taken to the Plymouth County Jail and charged with an OWI, a serious misdemeanor.
The accident remains under investigation.
The Plymouth County Sheriff's Department assisted city police.
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Goes to show you that if you drink and drive your going to get caught one way or another! How sad that you had to have it happen this way. let this be a lesson to anyone that drinks and drives.. DON'T BE STUPID!!
people just need to slow down and look !!!!!!!!!!!
U know its pretty sad to see that happen. i think that the guy that hit him should have to pay all his bills! u know people go to fast on that street anyway and its only 25 .their are so many little kids that ride bye to go swiming in the summer that it scears me when they cross the street .cuz people dont stop for them to cross .they have to wat for the cars first .so what i want to know is why the even have a yellow flashing light there when poeple dont pay atenchen to it they still go fast .they dont do 25 or slow down .thats wath its there for .
The report does not indicate if the victim was given a blood/alcohol test. A sober person is unlikely to step out in front of a car, can judge speed better and will have other facilties more under control.
I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right but with all the incidences that seem to occur on Saturday nights, maybe the best place for all us sober people or not so sober people, is behind the fence of our own property.
Does not suprise me, from what I have heard about this guy is he has done this quite frequently (drunk driving).
All of this would be a complete different story if the driver was sober. But he wasn't. He was drunk. He made the choice to get behind the wheel after drinking. And thats a choice and image he will have to live with. Maybe the kid did run out in front of him but it doesn't change the fact that the driver WAS DRUNK!!!!!!!!!!! There is no excuse in the world that can justify him hitting someone when he was drinking and driving. Now I hope everytime he thinks about taking a drink out of a bottle that image pops in his head. Cause obviously it takes something tragic to happen for them to learn there lesson. I guess the horror stories about drinking and driving just isn't enough. I don't feel one bit sorry for the driver. You made the decision to drive drunk and now you have to sleep in the bed you made for yourself..
Exactly Huskerfan, I could not agree more.
Lets even say the person walking was drunk too, he was being as responsible as a drunk person can be... WALKING. He was not the idiot that chose to drive after being drunk.
Our Thoughts and Prayers are with you Erik and your family.
Granted the driver was not in any condition to drive but whether your drunk or not it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that u look before you cross the street!!!!!! People make mistakes and yes this was a mistake and a lesson learned to everyone! But you are making the driver sound like a vicious and uncaring person who does nothing but drives around drinking! People should not be so quick to judge unless you have walked a mile in someone elses shoes! I agree what about the alcohol level the pedestrian had no where does it say that he was drunk as well! Seems like people are only getting the news papers side of the story and not both sides! so before you jump to judge someone make sure your closet is clean! and like you never made a mistake in your life! So if u do not know someone then dont presume to judge them!
You don't understand the whole point of this. If the driver was sober and the pedestrian was drunk this would not even be an issue and I would feel bad for the driver. The fact is the driver was drunk no matter how you slice it, dice it, fillet it or flip it. That puts him at total fault. Its not against the LAW to drink and walk however drinking and driving is. I don't know the driver nor do I know anything about him, but with him driving drunk and hitting someone he made himself look bad. I would say the same thing to anyone that did the same thing.. Anyone that sets themselve up for this needs to be made an example out of. I'm sure that man in Kingsley that got pulled over with 4 children in the car and was found to be drunk is a nice guy too but guess what? He just set himself up to be judges for being stupid. This is total case and point..
a point strictly on the writing of this article:
i think it would be in the best interest of the sentinel to learn to use the word 'allegedly' or 'according to police' when asserting that "Erik Wiltgen was hit Saturday night by a drunken driver while attempting to walk across 12th St. S.E."
had a court of law, at the time this article had been written, determined as fact that the driver was intoxicated? nope.
you may not get burned on it this time, author amy erikson, but i wouldn't think it wise to either open the sentinel to liability or have the paper make guilty calls.
just because the sentinel is a small town paper doesn't make it immune from basic journalistic ethics.
but in LeMars, a person is guilty until proven innocent. This is just the way the police force operates, especially when dealing with minors.
so maybe this writing style is correct. lol
There is nothing wrong with the way this article is written. It is simply reporting information received from either the City Police or Sheriff's department. The article states, "Murfin was given a sobriety test and was found to be intoxicated." If your blood alcohol level is greater than .08, there is no "allegedly" about it. At this level, in the state of Iowa, you are intoxicated.
I know the police get a lot of heat about picking people up as they drive away from the bars, etc., but I can't fault them for keeping the roads safer for the rest of us. Until you have had a loved one injured or killed by a drunk driver, as I have, it's easy to make excuses. When it happens to your family or friends, there is no "lol" about it.
there is a major allegedly about it.
field tests are used to generate evidence. a breathalizer (sp?) carries no final judgment -- it isn't a replacement for a judge or jury. it's just evidence.
i know under the circumstances it certainly looks the driver was intoxicated, but the paper should wait until a court has made a judgment to make those same assertions.
and this writing is found throughout the sentinel's coverage of criminal justice cases. if you go look at the recent article on a kingsley resident who is charged with threatening the police, you'll see they use the police report as fact. you just can't do that, sentinel, even though i realize the ease that it creates and the probability that police are being truthful.
i'd like to see the sentinel make a comment on this choice of language and decision to eschew the common journalistic method here. please, let us know!