A Barnes woman accused of looking at her phone while behind the wheel and causing a fatal accident is set for a jury trial.
Authorities say the two-vehicle crash on Sept. 2, 2022 saw Mariah Reindahl, 21, run a stop sign on Highway N and strike a vehicle on Highway 27 driven by Reynold Elstad. Susan Elstad, a passenger in the southbound vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Reindahl is charged with homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle, reckless driving causing great bodily harm and two counts of reckless driving causing injury.
Reynold Elstad and two other passengers in his vehicle were injured in the collision. Jacqueline Elsenmann, 59, suffered life-threatening injuries. Reynold Elstad, George Elsenmann, 61, and Reindahl were taken to the hospital.
Reynold Elstad told authorities he was traveling southbound on Highway 27 when a maroon vehicle blew through the stop sign and T-boned his vehicle. His wife was sitting right behind him. They had been out with friends and were headed to dinner, according to the criminal complaint.
A witness to the accident grabbed his first aid bag out of his vehicle and attempted to help Susan Elstad. Another witness said Susan Elstad was breathing, moaning and blinking her eyes for roughly five minutes, but did not speak. She died of catastrophic blunt force injuries sustained from the crash.
Authorities say Reindahl was looking at the GPS on her phone in route to Duluth. She quickly glanced at her phone and the sun was also in her eyes so she couldn’t see very well.
Leading up to the accident, Reindahl was sending messages on Tinder and Snapchat to a person named “Tom” from about 6:06 p.m. to 7:16 p.m. The last message sent by Reindahl said “I just looked at my phone for a sec to see where I was going and I crashed.”
Reindahl told authorities she didn’t remember stopping at the stop sign and was going about 55-60 mph. She had not been drinking or using any drugs, which was later confirmed by lab tests on her blood.
During a motion hearing on July 3, Reindahl’s attorney, Joseph O’Brien, said “she will have to live with this for the rest of her life.”
Her trial has been scheduled for Aug. 12-15.
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