Trucker sentenced to 6 months for crash that killed trooper performing roadside inspection

A truck driver has been sentenced for his role in a crash that claimed the life of an Illinois State Trooper in 2019.

Truck driver Craig Dittmar, 57, was sentenced to 6 months in prison in addition to 4 years of probation and a $3000 fine.

Dittmar previously pleaded guilty to one count of Reckless Homicide and one count of Safety Regulations Violations that resulted in Death.

The charges against Dittmar stem from a crash that happened on March 28, 2019, in Stephenson County, Illinois.

Around noon, 34 year old Illinois State Police Trooper Brooke Jones-Story was outside of her cruiser performing a roadside CMV inspection on Route 20 westbound near Freeport when “she was struck and fatally wounded when a truck tractor semi-trailer combination struck her squad car and the semi Trooper Jones-Story was inspecting.”

Both trucks caught fire after the crash.

During an April 2019 court appearance, an llinois State Police sergeant testified that Dittmar said that he fell asleep just before the fatal crash.

Jones-Story was a 12 year veteran of Illinois State Police District 16 in Pecatonica.