Looking in at Iowa

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5/1/08 UPDATE: Gazette obituary here.

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UPDATE: Steve Baumgartner is actually from Oelwein, Iowa, not Maquoketa, as reported earlier.

Four videos in past month appear on Steve’s MySpace videos page.

Also, here is a photo of Steve

050514-N-5526M-012 14, April 2005 Fire controlman Steven Baumgartner from Oelwein, Iowa, assigned to Combat Systems Department aboard the Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60), fires the twin .50 Caliper Machine Gun during a pre aimed calibration (PAC) fire exercise. …

4/30 UPDATE: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier has additional information about Steve Baumgartner from family: Former Oelwein man killed in street luge accident

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April 28, 2008

From Kansas City Star:

Kansas City, Kan., police have identified the man killed Saturday while riding a street luge as 28-year-old Steve Baumgarter of Iowa.

Authorities said Baumgarter had come to the area to participate in an unsanctioned race on Sunday. The race was canceled after his death. …

KCCI reports that he was from Maquoketa:

The accident happened about 8 p.m. Saturday in Rosedale Park and killed Steve Baumgarter, of Maquoketa.

Friends of the victim said he was a Navy petty officer 1st Class who was home on leave. …

And from KMBC (includes video news report):

According to police, Steve Baumgarter was preparing for the unsanctioned event. He was going down a road on a luge about five feet long when he lost control and hit a tree. He died on impact.

Friends of the victim said he was a Navy petty officer 1st Class, who was home on leave.

Investigators said Baumgarter was wearing a helmet as well as protective leather.

From Daily Chronicle (Illinois):

A pilot sustained no injuries Monday when he made an emergency landing with his single-engine, single-propeller private plane at about 3:05 p.m. in rural Shabbona.

The pilot, John G. Lowe, 39, of Plainfield, was flying from Iowa City to Aurora when his plane reportedly developed a mechanical problem that caused it to quickly lose power and altitude, forcing him to make an emergency landing on Cemetery Road near Challand Road. …

From Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Daily Citizen:

JUNEAU (AP) — A Hartford woman involved in a summer crash that killed an Iowa motorcyclist has been found guilty in the man’s death.

Darcy L. Schehr, 28, had originally pleaded not guilty in the death of Daniel D. Christ, 40, of Iowa. But last week in Dodge County Circuit Court, she pleaded no contest to charges of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle and was found guilty. …

From Register-Herald in Beckley, West Virginia:

Log truck, 18-wheeler collide

Two truckers escaped injury Tuesday morning when a tractor-trailer rear-ended a log truck on Sandstone Mountain, spreading debris and diesel fuel across Interstate 64, police said. …

[Charles Edward] Seay was cited for failure to maintain control of a vehicle, Redden said. …Seay’s tractor-trailer was owned by Heartland Express of Iowa City, Iowa, Redden said.

From Jackson Hole Star Tribune:

SHERIDAN — A judge has sentenced a Sheridan man to serve between five to 10 years in prison on a conviction of vehicular homicide.

District Judge John Fenn on Thursday sentenced Russell Lloyd DeSantis, 35. Authorities say DeSantis was drunk when he drove head on into a motorcycle driven by John A. Lindgren of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The crash happened Sept. 3 on  …

John Lindgren’s Gazette obituary is here.

Victim’s vehicle crossed over center line, into path of rig. From yesterday’s Tulsa World:

Red dirt veteran dies in Kansas crash

A quirky, longtime friend of the red dirt music scene has died.Jerry Newport, 60, of Okmulgee, was in a two-vehicle car crash late Saturday in Kansas. His vehicle crossed the center line and collided with an oncoming tractor-trailor rig, reports show. …The driver of the semi, 46-year-old Mitchell Hanks of Lone Tree, Iowa, was not hurt.Police would not say why Newport went into the other lane. …

From AP video, during a campaign stop Friday at Independence, Iowa. It plays twice in the clip, giving an instant-replay feel.

Hopefully a doctor wasn’t required at the scene.

From Sunday’s [Bloomington, Illinois] Pantagraph:

… Mike and Kathleen Tupker were heading home from Champaign to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when they saw the accident. They said they were about 50 feet behind the truck when the accident occurred, and they waited to talk to police at the scene. Salt trucks were present in the area.

“We were a minute away from being hit,” Kathleen Tupker said. “We were just lucky.” … [more >>]