Dump Truck Driver Charged In Fatal 2019 Rosemount Crash

ROSEMOUNT, MN — A man was charged Tuesday with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Dakota County District Court.

The complaint was filed under a "warrant" status, meaning he has not yet been arrested.

If convicted, Fred Fonji of Roseville could face up to 10 years and/or a fine of up to $20,000 per count, according to the complaint.

On Oct. 17, 2019, a trooper with the Minnesota State Patrol was driving on Highway 55 in Rosemount when he saw a dump truck and a semi-truck next to each other with a passenger vehicle that had been split in half between the two trucks, according to authorities.

A pick-up truck was also seen in a ditch nearby and the scene of the crash was still "smoking," troopers said.

A trooper found the drivers of the dump truck, semi-truck and pick-up truck before going back to the passenger vehicle, according to authorities. The driver of the dump truck was identified as Fonji, police said.

The trooper found a woman outside the passenger vehicle and she was pronounced dead at the scene, investigators said. Later, when a tow truck arrived to remove the semi-truck, a man was also found dead in the vehicle, troopers said.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported the victims as being Will and Colette Craig.

A witness told troopers that he saw the dump truck hit two cars before stopping alongside the semi-truck, according to officials.

Witnesses who were in the vehicle that was behind the dump truck when the crash occurred said that they didn't see any break lights on the dump truck before the crash, officials said.

Fonji later underwent a blood draw, which showed that he had not taken any controlled substances, troopers said.

Two days after the crash, the trooper was contacted by an employee of a landfill east of where the crash occurred, authorities said. According to the complaint, the employee identified the truck number that was involved in the crash and said that she had seen the truck drive through three times on the day of the crash, and each time Fonji was on his phone, despite her telling him to put his phone away.

A forensic analysis of one of Fonji's phones showed him receiving messages on messaging app Whatsapp less than a minute before the crash occurred, investigators said. It couldn't be determined whether or not Fonji had read or opened the messages, but both were received, according to the complaint.

A crash reconstruction showed that the dump truck was driving at least 55 mph when it hit the pick-up truck, causing it to drive into a ditch, troopers said. The dump truck then hit the Craigs' vehicle, pushing it into the semi-truck, troopers said. Their vehicle then split in half before being pinned against the semi, troopers said.

The reconstruction noted that all other vehicles were stopped or nearly stopped when hit by the dump truck, troopers said. The reconstruction also showed that Fonji should have been able to see the vehicles with enough time to stop, especially since no weather or road conditions contributed to the crash, troopers said.

The reconstruction concluded that Fonji either intentionally hit the vehicles or that he was too distracted to see them, troopers said. The reconstruction was done before Fonji's phone was analyzed but after reviewing the data officials say a factor in the crash could be Fonji being distracted by his phone