State investigators believe cocaine use caused the crash
By Robert Cloud
A special prosecutor filed homicide charges for a traffic fatality involving cocaine that occurred two years ago on U.S. Highway 10 in Waupaca.
Assistant Attorney General Tara Jenswold charged Miguel Victor Cruz, 56, Oshkosh, with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, homicide by a vehicle while using a controlled substance, and second-degree reckless homicide.
Shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, June 14, 2013, Sara Dulmes, 28, West Bend, was driving a maroon Chevy Blazer westbound on U.S. 10 near the County Trunk A intersection. She had an 8-year-old passenger in the vehicle.
Cruz was also westbound, driving a blue Jeep Liberty.
Witnesses told Waupaca County Deputy Nick Traeger that the Jeep was traveling at a high rate of speed, weaving back and forth between the left and right lanes as it passed other vehicles.
Cruz swerved into the slow lane, directly behind Dulmes’ vehicle, and clipped it, witnesses said.
One witness reported seeing Dulmes’ Blazer flip over and a body fly out of the vehicle.
Dulmes was found lying in the middle of the westbound lanes, next to her vehicle. She was airlifted to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah where she died at 4:06 a.m. Saturday, June 15, from traumatic brain injuries and a ruptured spleen.
The 8-year-old girl and Cruz were taken to the hospital in Waupaca, where they were treated for their injuries and subsequently released.
Wisconsin State Trooper Jim Binder interviewed Cruz at the hospital.
According to the criminal complaint, Cruz told Binder that he was driving to Wild Rose, then woke up in the hospital. He said he must have blacked out and did not remember anything.
A sample of Cruz’s blood was sent to the state crime lab, where the presence of cocaine was found.
Trooper Thomas Parrott, a crash reconstruction specialist, determined that Cruz was travelling 83-90 mph when he pulled behind Dulmes’ vehicle, hit its rear end, and caused it to spin clockwise and roll over.
Cruz is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Aug. 18.