LAFAYETTE — North-central Indiana prosecutors have decided not to charge a farmer whose failure to stop a combine at an intersection caused an accident that killed three people.
Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington tells the Journal & Courier that under prior Indiana Court of Appeals rulings negligence in a wreck doesn't amount to a criminal offense. He says 36-year-old Carl McFarland of West Point therefore won't be charged in the Oct. 31 crash.
That accident near Lafayette killed 62-year-old Daniel Fox of Attica, his 40-year-old wife, Stacy Fox, and their 15-year-old daughter, Demara Fox, when their minivan drove under a spiked harvesting apparatus known as a cornhead attached to McFarland's combine.
A Fox family spokesman says they're glad McFarland won't face charges because the fatalities were "just a horrible accident."
