Woman sentenced to probation for leaving fatal crash

A Vienna woman was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation for leaving the scene of a deadly accident in 2019.

Haily Crabtree, 29, was found guilty in Cole County court last week of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. She was previously found not guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter.

Officers responded to the area of U.S. 50/63 and Clark Avenue on Nov. 4, 2019, in reference to debris in the roadway, according to reports from the Jefferson City Police Department.

The first officer on the scene began removing debris from the roadway. While doing so, the officer located a bicycle and then a man lying on the roadway at the northern edge of the ramp. He was later identified as Eric Krauter, 51, of Slaughter, Louisiana.

Krauter, who was riding while pulling a trailer with his bicycle, was westbound on U.S. 50/63 in the outside lane near the exit ramp to Clark Avenue when he was struck by the front passenger side of a vehicle driven by Crabtree. The impact sent the bicycle and trailer along with Krauter, who was wearing a reflective vest, off the right side of the roadway. Krauter was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said Crabtree did not stop after hitting Krauter and continued traveling westbound on U.S. 50 until her vehicle became inoperative around the 2600 block of U.S. 50, causing her to pull onto the shoulder. A police officer stopped to assist and later learned it was the vehicle from the fatal crash.

The officer who responded to Crabtree's disabled vehicle reported her vehicle was missing parts from the passenger side that were later located at the scene of the fatal crash, according to the JCPD report. He also reportedly found cloth fibers in Crabtree's broken windshield that appeared to be from Krauter's reflective vest.

Crabtree allegedly told authorities she was driving westbound on U.S. 50 in the right lane near Clark Avenue when "something struck the front of her vehicle." She alleged a box had fallen from a truck and into the front of her car. She was unable to describe the truck that the box had fallen from.

Crabtree later said she might have fallen asleep while driving and said she woke up when the impact occurred. She assumed it was a box but wasn't sure exactly what she had struck.

She allegedly admitted she had no intention of stopping and reporting the crash after it happened, saying she was scared and didn't know what to do. She told the officer she had planned to go to Scott Station Road then look at the damage and report the crash.