DOVER, Del.- Several people on Tuesday testified on Tuesday about their recollections of a serious 2018 chain-reaction crash in Kent County that left a woman dead and led to a Dover police officer being charged with manslaughter and other offenses in connection to the off-duty incident.
The accounts of the crash came from witnesses called by prosecutors in the trial of Frederick Pierce, who was also charged last year with assault, using a cellphone while driving, and speeding. He was accused in an indictment of recklessly causing the death of Catina Isaacs, 44, in a Sept. 7, 2018 crash on South Dupont Highway near Woodside.
State police said in a news release following the crash that Pierce did not see slowed or stopped traffic as he approached the southbound intersection of the highway and Walnut Shade Road. Police said his his truck hit Isaac's SUV with such force that it not only drove her car into the UPS truck directly in front of her but also set off a cascade of rear ends involving two more vehicles.
"It was carnage," said Martin Hogan, of Milford, whose SUV was at the opposite end of chain-reaction crash and testified to leaving his vehicle after the crash and finding Isaac's crumpled car with her inside, slumped over the front passenger seat.
Catina Isaacs.
Witnesses said in court that the crash happened as traffic backed up for a half mile away from the intersection of Walnut Shade Road.
"It was very cluttered—bumper to bumper," said Michelle Shockley, who testified to driving an ambulance that was near the scene of the crash when it occurred.
Following the crash, Pierce began to ask about the whereabouts of his phone, according to Hogan and Scott Anderson, a driver whose truck was hit by the UPS truck and sent forward into Hogan's SUV.
"He was asking for his phone," Anderson testified, shortly before he said he did not retrieve the device for Pierce.
Pierce is expected to the take the stand at some point in the trial. His defense attorney, Scott Wilson, told jurors on Monday that many of the facts surrounding his client's role in the crash are not in dispute but the crash itself was caused by negligence, rather than recklessness.
Pierce was placed on leave with pay for the first nine months following the crash but was then placed on administrative leave without pay after being indicted, according to a Dover Police Department spokesman.
Prosecutors are expected to resume calling witnesses on Wednesday morning.