COUNCIL BLUFFS — The driver involved in last Friday's fatal accident on Interstate 480 could also face a vehicular homicide charge, depending on the results of a blood test.
Ronald T. Dunbar, 45, of Council Bluffs is charged with leaving the scene of a fatality accident in connection with the wreck that killed Linda Steskal, 52, of Carter Lake. He also faces charges of operating without a valid driver's license and transporting an open container of beer.
The leaving-the-scene charge is a Class D felony, which could bring Dunbar up to five years in prison, Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said.
Wilber said some have questioned why a vehicular homicide charge was not filed immediately. "We don't file a charge then get the evidence, we get the evidence then file the charge," the county attorney said.
Wilber said Dunbar refused a blood-alcohol breath test once he was in custody. Authorities then obtained a warrant to draw blood to determine whether Dunbar was under the influence of alcohol. Results of the blood test have not been returned from the state lab in Ankeny, according to Wilber.
Depending on the test results, Wilber said, Dunbar could be charged with motor-vehicle homicide while intoxicated, a Class B felony that carries a mandatory 25-year prison sentence.
"This is a serious charge," Wilber said.
This isn't Dunbar's first brush with the law.
He was released in February 2009 from the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility after a 17-year incarceration, according to Fred Scaletta, public and media relations director for the Iowa Department of Corrections.
On Oct. 16, 1991, authorities arrested Dunbar on first- and second-degree robbery charges in Council Bluffs, Scaletta said.
Records indicate Dunbar escaped custody twice — in February 2006 and November 2007 — while on work release in Council Bluffs. Scaletta said after each escape Dunbar was sent back to prison, until his release from Fort Dodge.
The fatal crash occurred about 3:30 p.m. Friday as Dunbar was eastbound on I-480 near the Dodge Park exit between the Missouri River and Interstate 29 interchange. According to the Council Bluffs police, Dunbar lost control of his 1997 Mercury Mountaineer, which struck a 2002 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Steskal.
The Malibu struck the center guardrail and went off the roadway into a ditch. Dunbar and a passenger, Michael Barnett, 45, also of Council Bluffs, fled but were apprehended a short distance from the crash site.
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