Authorities have disclosed that the at-fault driver in the traffic crash that killed John Dolegowski near Hopkins last month is Catherine Gertrude Bender, 45, who was arraigned Monday in Allegan County District Court.
Bender was arraigned on a charge of driving with a licese suspended (DWLS) causing death on Dec. 16. The registered owner of the vehicle will be arraigned on the afternoon of Jan. 25 and her name will be released after her arraignment.
The fatal crash took place at the intersection of 130th Avenue and 22nd Street in Hopkins Township. Allegan County Sheriff’s deputies said they responded to a report of a two-vehicle crash involving a pickup truck and a passenger car. The passenger car had suffered severe front end damage and the engine area was on fire.
Bender, the driver of the car, was removed from the vehicle and the fire was extinguished by Hopkins Fire Department. She was was treated at the scene for moderate injuries and transported via Aeromed helicopter to Spectrum Butterworth Hospital.
Dolegowski, 58, of Watson Township, the driver of the pickup truck, was ejected from his vehicle and was found to have severe injuries. He was taken to Spectrum Butterworth Hospital by Wayland EMS where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later.
Bender was wearing a seat belt and the initial investigation shows that she failed to stop for a stop sign heading westbound on 130th Avenue and drove into the path of the southbound pickup truck driven by Dolegowski on 22nd Street. Dolegowski was not wearing his seat belt.
PHOTO: Catherine Bender
Why was Bender, the one with moderate injuries, taken by Aeromed when Dolegowski, the one with severe injuries, was taken by Wayland EMS? That to me sounds completely backwards. Not only that but if he had severe injuries, wasn’t time of the essence at that point?