A 32-year-old Lincoln man has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined $10,000 for drunkenly crashing into the back of a 2017 Buick near 27th Street and Old Cheney Road nearly two years ago, sending himself and two others to the hospital, one with serious injuries.
Travis Tucker
Travis Tucker also will have to serve a year and a half on post-release supervision and his license will be revoked for 15 years as part of the sentence Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret gave him Friday.
It was the most she could give Tucker for DUI causing serious injury, a felony charge to which he pleaded no contest.
At about 2:20 a.m. Oct. 17, 2021, Tucker's Jeep and a Buick Encore occupied by Natasha Gulbrandson and her fiance, Nick Jarecke, both had just passed 27th Street while heading east on Old Cheney when Tucker crashed into the Buick, according to a state investigator's crash report.
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The collision forced the car across the center lane and into a light pole on the north side of the road. The Jeep came to rest against a tree south of Old Cheney.
Tucker, Gulbrandson and Jarecke all were taken by ambulance to the hospital.
Jarecke suffered a fractured spine that required surgery and was "intubated, heavily sedated and unable to speak," in the initial days after the crash.
First responders noted an odor of alcohol on Tucker. Lincoln police said his blood alcohol level tested at .226, nearly three times the legal limit to drive.
These are the highways in Nebraska with the most fatalities.
These are the highways in Nebraska with the most fatalities.
Americans travel billions of cumulative interstate miles every year—statistically, accidents are almost a certainty. Still, many traffic crashes and subsequent fatalities are avoidable.
In 2020, nearly 39,000 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes on U.S. roadways—an increase of roughly 7% from 2019, according to the most recent data released in 2022 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In nearly half of all fatal crashes, drivers were either speeding, impaired by alcohol, not wearing a seat belt, or some combination of those three, according to NHTSA.
Highway driving, in particular, can lead to more serious or fatal accidents than on other roadways because vehicles are traveling at much greater speeds.
President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has earmarked tens of billions of dollars for programs that will improve road safety in the U.S., including programs to improve physical infrastructure, vehicle safety, and data collection.
Stacker ranked data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to identify the highways in Nebraska that had the most fatalities from auto crashes in 2020. Ties were broken by the total quantity of crashes where possible.
#25. Washington St
- Total fatalities: 1
- Number of crashes: 1
#18. US-385
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#18. US-20
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#18. SR-92
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#18. SR-89
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#18. SR-33
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#18. Abbott Dr
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#18. 13Th St
- Total fatalities: 2
- Number of crashes: 2
#17. I-480
- Total fatalities: 3
- Number of crashes: 2
#14. US-26
- Total fatalities: 3
- Number of crashes: 3
#14. SR-71
- Total fatalities: 3
- Number of crashes: 3
#14. SR-50
- Total fatalities: 3
- Number of crashes: 3
#12. US-281
- Total fatalities: 4
- Number of crashes: 3
#12. SR-64
- Total fatalities: 4
- Number of crashes: 3
#11. SR-35
- Total fatalities: 4
- Number of crashes: 4
#10. US-83
- Total fatalities: 5
- Number of crashes: 4
#8. SR-91
- Total fatalities: 5
- Number of crashes: 5
#8. SR-2
- Total fatalities: 5
- Number of crashes: 5
#7. US-275
- Total fatalities: 6
- Number of crashes: 6
#6. US-77
- Total fatalities: 7
- Number of crashes: 6
#5. US-81
- Total fatalities: 8
- Number of crashes: 7
#4. US-6
- Total fatalities: 10
- Number of crashes: 10
#3. US-75
- Total fatalities: 11
- Number of crashes: 10
#2. US-30
- Total fatalities: 11
- Number of crashes: 11
#1. I-80
- Total fatalities: 28
- Number of crashes: 23
