MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says it is seeking homicide charges against a driver accused of causing a fatal crash that shut down a portion of Highway 45 for more than five hours on Tuesday, September 30th.
It happened just before 2:30, on Highway 45 southbound near Watertown Plank Road/Mayfair Road.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says the crash involved two vehicles -- and one of those vehicles, a pickup truck, rolled over as a result of the crash.
Sheriff's officials say the pickup truck's driver, 54-year-old Dennis Meyer of Milwaukee was ejected from the pickup truck. Sheriff's officials say when deputies arrived at the scene of the crash, a Good Samaritan, who is a nurse, was with the pickup truck's driver.
Meyer was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, a 27-year-old man was also ejected, and he was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but he is expected to survive.
Sheriff's officials say neither the driver, nor the passenger of the pickup truck were wearing their seat belts.
Sheriff's officials say witnesses indicated the driver of a Buick LeSabre, a 45-year-old Milwaukee man, was changing lanes and passing in traffic recklessly when his vehicle lost control, went across all lanes of traffic and struck the pickup truck -- causing it to roll.
The Sheriff's Office says the Buick's driver has said he was on his way to a doctor's appointment. He was not impaired.
Sheriff's officials say they're seeking two felony charges against the Buick's driver -- for homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle and first degree recklessly endangering safety.
If convicted, the Buick's driver faces up to 22-and-a-half years in prison.
The full-freeway closure of US-45 southbound lasted approximately five-and-a-half hours while deputies reversed traffic off the freeway, cleared the scene and conducted the crash scene investigation.
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