Woman pays fine, settles second of 2 car crashes
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com December 18, 2012 9:00PM
Naperville police and firefighters respond to a vehicle that crashed into the wall of a business, around 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, 2012, at Rosin Eye Car, 705 East Ogden Ave., Naperville, IL. | Brian Delaney~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: January 20, 2013 6:33AM
The woman who Naperville police said caused two traffic crashes in less than 24 hours at businesses within a block of one another has paid a $120 fine to settle the second of those cases.
Records on file at the DuPage County Circuit Court clerk’s office indicated motorist Mary Hasselberger entered a “pre-court guilty plea” to a charge of driving too fast for conditions or failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. She received that ticket following the Nov. 30 crash at Rosin Eyecare, 705 E. Ogden Ave., in which her car plowed partially through an exterior wall.
Hasselberger, 66, of the 300 block of North Charles Street on Naperville’s east side, submitted a $120 “mail-in fee” that was received and formally recorded Monday by the clerk’s office. Court records indicated in addition to paying that fine, Hasselberger was placed on three months of supervision.
Naperville police Sgt. Lee Martin earlier this month said Hasselberger was also responsible for a Nov. 29 crash through a fence that separates the Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant at 811 E. Ogden Ave. from a residential neighborhood. Martin said she was not ticketed in that incident because the crash occurred on private property.
Michael DiSanto, Naperville’s assistant city attorney, confirmed Tuesday that Hasselberger settled the second case via mail, in spite of the fact that the police officer who issued her ticket made a “court appearance required” notation on it.
“The city is investigating the pre-court guilty plea,” DiSanto said. He added his office might pursue further action against Hasselberger should it be deemed “appropriate or necessary.”
Martin said the first crash occurred about 2:35 p.m. Nov. 29, while Hasselberger was driving a silver Ford Taurus. The car burst through the wooden fence separating the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot from a duplex home on Red Oak Court, and came to a halt after striking a tree and a bench, he said.
The Nov. 30 crash occurred about 1 p.m., when Hasselberger was behind the wheel of a rented, 2013 Buick LaCrosse sedan. Martin said she was driving north on Columbia Street and attempting a turn into the parking lot of the Walgreens store at 713 E. Ogden Ave., between Rosin Eyecare and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Martin said the car made “a big circle” and overshot the Walgreens lot entrance. It then went over a curb and a grassy area before smashing through the metal fence separating the Rosin Eyecare and Walgreens properties. It then slammed into and through the clinic’s northeastern wall, coming to rest partially inside the lobby.
No one was injured in either incident.
Hasselberger told police the brakes on both cars failed when she tried to stop. Martin, however, said investigators “did not note any mechanical issues involved in the vehicles in either crash.”
DuPage County court records indicated Hasselberger was ticketed six times between February 2000 and March 2009 by Naperville and Downers Grove police. Those citations were for speeding, driving without insurance and failure to signal, records showed.
