Boy, 14, dies in crash

Accident under

investigation; boy was driving

without license

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Friends said they were shocked to learn that one of their classmates died in a traffic collision early Wednesday morning.

Jerry Marks, a freshman at New Ulm High School, was sitting in a fourth-hour class when he was called away, not knowing what to expect.

"It was very rough. I was pulled out of a fourth-hour class and told that one of my best friends died in a car accident. I don't even have words for how I feel. It was very hard to take."

The State Patrol said it is still investigating the head-on crash on State Highway 68 that killed 14-year old Eric James Mellingen of New Ulm at 7:29 a.m.

School officials met in an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the district's policies. Superintendent Harold Remme said grief counseling will be available to students beginning today.

Many of Mellingen's friends left school early on Wednesday to discuss and deal with his death.

Marks and friends Garrison Heyer and Jared Netzke were some of the first acquaintances Mellingen made after he and his father moved to New Ulm from St. Paul six months ago. All three remembered Mellingen as laid-back, well-humored and popular.

Heyer and Netzke said they were often at Mellingen's house near Courtland riding four-wheeled ATVs on a track in the back yard. Marks remembered that he and Mellingen bonded over rap CDs and sometimes made their own rhymes for some of the songs.

"He was really into rap," Heyer remembered. "Eric had practically every 2Pac CD or at least most of them."

Marks, Heyer and Netzke went back to the scene of the crash with a few other people later Wednesday afternoon out of respect and "to try and figure out what happened," Heyer said. "We knew the car was totaled because there were bits and pieces of the motor all over the place. It was just shattered."

The crash happened on a dry, blacktop road that is west of the line between Brown and Blue Earth counties. Mellingen was driving a 1992 Buick Regal and was heading east on Highway 68 when he crossed the center line into the path of an oncoming grain truck that was driven by Lloyd Freitag, Jr., 56, of Franklin.

State Patrol Sgt. Jacalyn Sticha said investigators do not know how or why Mellingen crossed over the center line.

"There are no skid marks from the car, and it appears there was no braking, and we don't know the reason why," she said.

A State Patrol report said Mellingen did not have a driver's license or a permit and was not wearing a seat belt at the time of accident.

The Buick is registered to Mellingen's father, Kevin James Mellingen, who is said to have sent his son on an errand to New Ulm. Eric Mellingen was coming home from the errand at the time of the crash, the State Patrol said.

Sticha said the Buick was totaled in the crash and the truck, a 1996 Freightliner owned by Morgan Grain and Feed, received moderate damage. Freitag was not injured in the crash and was able to participate in an interview at the scene.

Mellingen was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. His body was taken to Immanuel-St. Joseph Hospital in Mankato for an autopsy and was then taken to an undisclosed funeral home in the Twin Cities metro area, where funeral arrangements are pending.