Missing stop sign leads to fatal crash

The investigation into a fatal crash east of the capital city took a new turn, with the discovery that a stop sign had been removed from the corner where two rural highways meet. Polk County Chief Deputy Dennis Anderson says it was a little before there Sunday afternoon when his office got a call to the intersection. Deputies responded and found a 1997 Pontiac Trans-Am had been eastbound when it entered the intersection and was hit by a southbound car. But the deputy says that normally “Stop-controlled” intersection had been tampered with. They later found that the stop sign for the eastbound traffic approaching that intersection had been pulled up and laid down on the ground, which could lead to charges of vehicular homicide as well as tampering with a traffic-control device for whoever did it. He says they don’t know why someone pulled out the stop sign.Authorities don’t know if it was a juvenile prank, but Anderson says whatever the reasoning, it was a tragic event, the tampering was a criminal offense, and someone died. Though there were “Caution — Stop Ahead” signs farther back on the highway, Deputy Anderson says the stop sign removed at the corner was not visible to drivers. There’s a reward for calling usable information in to the local Crime Stoppers 24-hour hotline, at (515) 223-1400.