Police: Fatal crash still a mystery
By TIM KANE tkane@kcchronicle.com
Shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday, police were alerted that a car left Plank Road near Burlington and piled into several trees, killing the driver, and nobody saw it happen.
"This is one of the tougher cases to solve," said Sheriff's Lt. Pat Gengler, commenting on the one-car accident that took the life of Alfonso Santiago, 25, DeKalb.
Santiago was pronounced dead at the scene. A passerby spotted the car off on the side of the road.
Excessive speed may have been a factor and Santiago may have lost control of the 1997 Mercury Mountaineer that he was driving, police said.
"You don't want people to be traumatized having to witness this horrible accident, but sometimes you hope that somebody did see it," Gengler said. "There is nobody to tell us what happened.
"Did [Santiago] swerve to avoid a deer? Did he fall asleep? Was he distracted in some way. We may never know the whole story," he said.
Police are waiting on toxicology results, which could take months.
