Court: Driver accessing web on phone in fatal crash near Ottawa

A driver was charged Tuesday in connection with a crash that killed a Princeton man on Thanksgiving weekend near Ottawa. He was using a handheld cellphone, prosecutors allege.

Daniel P. Olson, 56, of Manville was charged Tuesday in La Salle County Circuit Court with four charges – two felonies and two misdemeanors – all filed after an investigation into the Nov. 29 crash north of Ottawa that killed David A. Camp.

Olson’s controlling charge is reckless homicide, a Class 3 felony carrying two to five years in prison with the possibility of probation, but it is subject to the state Truth in Sentencing Act requiring certain felons to serve at least 85% of their prison time.

Olson also is charged with aggravated use of a communications device (resulting in a death), a Class 4 felony carrying one to three years in prison. Court records specifically allege that Olson accessed a website, calling it “a proximate cause” of the fatal crash.

That is believed to be the first such charge filed in La Salle County. The charge is relatively new, on the books since 2021, and the La Salle County State’s Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that this likely is precedent-setting, at least for the county, but declined additional comment on a pending case.

Additionally, Olson is charged with two counts of aggravated use of a communications device (resulting in bodily harm), both misdemeanors carrying up to a year in jail, for injuries to two other occupants in the Camp vehicle. Both survived.

Ottawa defense attorney Darrell Seigler entered his appearance Wednesday on Olson’s behalf. Seigler declined to comment.

Olson is scheduled to appear July 31 in La Salle County Circuit Court. He is not in custody, and there is no pending motion to have him detained. Neither of Olson’s felony charges is a detainable offense as defined by the SAFE-T Act, which gives all suspects a presumption of pretrial release.

Details of the crash remain pending. The two-vehicle collision occurred the Friday after Thanksgiving at Route 23 and North 32nd Road, a T-intersection north of Ottawa. Camp, 57, was subsequently identified as the person who died.

Although almost 230 days have elapsed between the incident and the filing of charges, that is a comparatively rapid turnaround. Accident reconstructions can take weeks or months, particularly when resulting in a fatality, and forensic IT investigators would need additional time to produce admissible evidence showing use of a handheld device.