Charges – Trucker Blamed For Deadly MN Crash Distracted by Porn

Faribault, MN (KROC-AM News) - A truck driver from Iowa is now facing a long list of charges stemming from a traffic crash on a southern Minnesota freeway last year that claimed the life of an unborn child.

A criminal complaint was filed last week in Rice County Court against 52-year-old Joel Adam Sassman that lists nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. Five of the charges are felonies, including one count for the death of an unborn child.

The charges allege the Fredericksburg Iowa man was driving a semi-truck north on I-35 when he triggered a six vehicle pileup in a construction zone just south of Faribault on the afternoon of August 20, 2023. According to court documents, the pileup began when his truck crashed into the back of an SUV.

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The criminal complaint indicates the front seat occupants of the SUV suffered life-threatening injuries. One of them was a 30-yeear-old Forest Lake woman in the 31st week of her pregnancy. The charges say, after her arrival at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester, Mayo Clinic doctors attempted to perform an emergency C-section, but the baby died as a result of the injuries suffered in the crash.

It is alleged the deadly crash occurred while Sassman was distracted by his cell phone. The charges say, when a State Trooper was able to examined the man's cell phone, a photo of a semi-nude woman was on the screen.

The court document says account information for the cell phone found that Sassman had sent 8 "sex chats," conducted multiple searches on the Adult Friend Finder Network website, visited another sex website and sent direct messages via social media in the minutes preceding the crash. The examination of the account also determined that the orientation of the phone was changed to landscape 5 different times during that same time span.

The State Patrol reconstruction of the crash determined the semi-truck was traveling at approximately 70 mph less than a second before the initial collision that resulted in the pileup. It also did not find any mechanical defects that would've contributed to the crash.

Sassman has been ordered to appear in Rice County Court for his formal arrangement on the charges in December.

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