2 Investigators: Distracted Driver Gets Leniency After Fatal Wreck

August 27, 2012 12:00 AM " CHICAGO (CBS) – A top state official says reforms are due in the wake of a fatal accident caused by an allegedly distracted driver who was not criminally charged – who, in fact, got off relatively easy in traffic court.

“I’m upset, real upset. Because the system failed my daughter,” Carol Speer says. “And I feel it’s failed a lot of people.”

Her daughter, Patricia McNamara, was killed last September after a driver rammed into her car at the intersection of Harmony Road and Route 20 in McHenry County.

The driver, Kenneth Englert, admitted to McHenry County Sheriff’s police that he didn’t see the warning of an upcoming stop sign because “he was distracted by his phone,” according to the crash report.

“The keys were too small so he was having a difficult time,” Undersheriff Andrew Zinke tells 2 Investigator Pam Zekman. “When he finally did make contact with the person he was trying to call, the accident happened.”

A spokesman for the McHenry County States Attorney’s office says there was not enough evidence to charge the driver with anything more than blowing a stop sign.

Records show Englert had three prior speeding tickets for which he got fined. In 2007, he was found guilty of speeding in DeKalb County and fined $75. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to speeding in Carol Stream and was fined $75 and placed on court supervision. "

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