Two months after getting a ticket for being on her phone while driving, a woman was on her phone again when she struck a motorcyclist at an Anoka county intersection and killed him, according to a newly filed search warrant affidavit.
Search warrant: Driver on phone when she struck and killed motorcyclist in Oak Grove
She said at the scene she was on her phone, then said the sun was in her eyes, the filing read.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 16, 2024 at 4:54PM
The crash occurred Oct. 5 in Oak Grove at the intersection of Viking and Lake George boulevards NW., the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office identified the motorcyclist who died at the scene as Kelly Matthew Linder, 49, of Albert Lea, Minn., and the SUV driver as Jessica Marie Pietrzak, 31, of St. Francis. Court records show that Pietrzak was ticketed in August by a St. Francis police officer for driving while on her phone.
According to state Department of Public Safety statistics, distracted driving was a factor in 132 traffic deaths in Minnesota from 2019 through 2023.
Linder stopped shortly before noon on eastbound Viking Boulevard and was waiting to turn left onto Lake George Boulevard when Pietrzak hit the motorcycle from behind, the Sheriff’s Office said.
A search warrant affidavit this week from the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office disclosed that a witness who stopped to help Pietrzak after the crash told law enforcement that Pietrzak said “she was not paying attention and had been on her phone.”
Then as more people stopped to help, Pietrzak “began telling people that the sun was in her eyes, and she did not see the motorcycle,” read the filing, which led to the court allowing investigators to collect data from her cellphone.
The filing pointed out that the sun at that time of the day was not in a position for it to affect her vision. Also, the filing continued, Pietrzak’s entire front windshield has a dark tint. She’s been ticketed twice for the dark windshield in recent years, according to court records.
Pietrzak told a Sheriff’s Office investigator that she was driving about 40 miles per hour and attempted to swerve but failed to avoid hitting the motorcycle, the filing read.
On Wednesday, Pietrzak declined to be interviewed for this story.
Some have already been convicted, while others await trial. Will it all be wiped away?
