Sheriff’s Department offers no insight into fatal crash investigation as trucker seeks to recover impounded semi truck

A truck driver says he has been denied information regarding a fatal crash that ended with his truck being impounded but no criminal charges. 

Truck driver and owner operator Eric Hafer was involved in a crash on Highway 164 in Waukesha, Wisconsin last June. Two people died in the crash. Now, Hafer is looking to collect his truck so he can support his family, but the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office is refusing to share information on the crash investigation.

According to TMJ4, Hafer was on his way home when the elderly couple pulled out in front of his loaded truck. 

“I was just got loaded in Waukesha and was on my way home for the day. I had a green light coming up to the intersection, you know, doing the speed limit, I was in the right lane. The light had turned yellow,” Hafer explained. 

Hafer says he went through the yellow light because he “did not believe that he would stop in time for the yellow light” and an oncoming car suddenly turned in front of him. He says he was unable to stop, but  “tried to swerve to avoid them.”

“I grabbed the air horn so hard I literally ripped the skin off my fingers,” he added. 

Hafer was unable to avoid crashing into the car, resulting in an accident that killed the 91 and 92-year-old people inside of the vehicle. 

Hafer said he cooperated with police during the crash investigation and submitted to a blood draw at the hospital. He has not been charged for the accident, but his truck was impounded as a part of the investigation. 

“I was treated like a criminal,” Hafer said. “I was never questioned by anybody, not by an officer, not by anybody. Still to this day, I have not been questioned of anything that has happened.”

Now, Hafer says he is looking to collect his impounded rig so he can work again, but the Sheriff’s Officer has refused to give him answers on the status of the investigation. 

“My family’s been devastated by this loss; we have no income. My wife was six months pregnant on bed rest at the time of the accident,” Hafer said. “We did everything we could with the money that the business had at the time to keep it going.”

“This whole situation is a tragedy for everyone involved,” Hafer said. “I would like the sheriff’s department to wrap up what they’re doing.”

The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office would only comment that the investigation was still considered “open.”