Widower Says Texting Driver Killed His Wife

By GLYNIS FARRELL

WOODSTOCK, Ill. (CN) – A lumber truck driver killed a woman by running a stop sign as he texted while driving, the woman’s husband says. Alexander Lumber Co. employee Kenneth Englert broadsided the late Patricia McNamara’s car on Sept. 30 “while using a telephone and/or texting,” McNamara’s husband says.

Kevin McNamara sued Englert and Alexander Lumber in McHenry County Court.
He claims Englert “failed to stop his vehicle for a stop sign,” drove “at a speed greater than reasonable,” and killed his wife by smashing a 2008 Ford Ranger pickup truck into her 2004 Chevy “while using a telephone and/or texting.”

According to the complaint, the accident happened around 11 a.m. in unincorporated Coral Township. Englert was treated and released from Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin. McNamara was taken to Sherman Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. McHenry County Police charged Englert with failure to yield at a stop intersection.

McNamara seeks more than $50,000 in damages for negligence and wrongful death.

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