Accident claims life of rural...1989

MITCHELL, DENLEY, PETERSON

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 7/21/2024 at 12:53:22

Accident claims life of rural Bonaparte man
Another seriously injured

Officers of the Van Buren County Sheriff's Department and the Iowa State Patrol are still attempting to unravel the facts surrounding an accident which claimed the life of one Bonaparte man and seriously injured another early Saturday evening, February 18.

The accident occurred three miles southeast of Bonaparte on a gravel road at approximately 7:15 p.m.

Thomas Robert Mitchell, 29, of rural Bonaparte, died at Van Buren County Memorial Hospital in Keosauqua a short time after the accident.

Another Bonaparte man, William Peterson, also 29, was taken by Life Flight ambulance to University Hospitals in Iowa City where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

According to Randy Jones, a technical investigator for the State Patrol, both men were apparently on foot when struck by a vehicle or vehicles.

Jones said Kevin Ray Denly, 29, of Bonaparte, was headed west on the gravel road toward Highway 2 in a pickup truck when he came upon Peterson's vehicle parked on the south shoulder facing cast.

Denly told officers he was blinded by the lights of the parked car, swerved to the right, partially into the north ditch. When he attempted to return to the road, he traveled across the road into the opposite ditch, shearing off a stop sign at a T-intersection of another gravel road to the south.

Believing he had struck someone, Denly told authorities he proceeded to a friend's house down the road to get help. When they returned to the site of the accident, Peterson was found injured in the roadway and Mitchell was lying in the north ditch.

Mitchell's truck was located 7/10 of a mile east of the accident site.

ISP investigator Jones said impact evidence on Denly's vehicle indicated he had struck just one of the two men, and officers believe that was Peterson. It is unclear at this time how Mitchell was struck.

No charges have been filed and the incident remains under investigation.

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Source: "Scrapbook 1989 - 1990", Pg. 579,
Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, Van Buren Co., IA