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John Driscoll

The Times-Standard

The 37-year-old man killed when his farm tractor was struck from behind by a big rig on U.S. Highway 101 on Wednesday in Fortuna was the son of the founder of the North Coast Mennonite Church.

The Humboldt County Coroner's Office said Stephen Baer of Alton was driving a tractor and hay rake northbound at the Kenmore exit when a semi-truck driving the same direction plowed into the back of Baer's tractor.

”He was going from one field to another when he was hit,” Coroner Dave Parris said of Baer.

Baer died from major injuries, Parris said. The driver of the semi-trailer lumber truck, Lonnie Millsaps, 65, of McKinleyville suffered minor injuries, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Millsaps was cited on charges of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, after the CHP determined that drugs or alcohol were not suspected to be a factor in the wreck. CHP spokesman Paul Dahlen said that Millsaps was cited at the request of the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office. Millsaps was released at the scene.

The CHP said that Millsaps was driving between 45 and 55 mph, and that two vehicles ahead of him passed Baer's 1973 John Deere tractor, which was traveling 15 to 20 mph and displaying the appropriate “slow-moving placard.” The CHP said that Millsaps “became inattentive” and failed to see the tractor, which the semi-truck crashed into, mauling the tractor and spilling lumber over the roadway.

Dahlen said there is no indication that Millsaps was texting, using a cell phone or eating at the time, only that he looked away just before the crash occurred. Millsaps was not arrested because CHP did not have all the information that would be needed to submit a report on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter to the DA, he said.

”We couldn't arrest him then before having all the information,” Dahlen said.

The citation makes it clear that Millsaps must show up in Humboldt County Superior Court on a specific date after all evidence has been collected and sent to the district attorney's office, Dahlen said.

Baer moved to the area from southern Alberta, Canada, in 1994 with his family, which was asked to start a Mennonite church, said his sister Keren Martin. Baer's father, Peter Baer, is the pastor who stared the North Coast Mennonite Church, Martin said, which has a congregation of about 35 members.

Martin said that Stephen Baer was single, and a farmer who raised heifer calves, mowed hay and had planted a big garden this year hoping to sell sweet corn and potatoes. Martin said that she is at peace about her older brother's death.

photos by Heather Nyberg-Schlotzhauer/Beacon

1. On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 14, members of the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department, Highway Patrol, and Caltrans respond to a vehicle collision that resulted in a fatality near the Kenmore exit by Highway 101 in Fortuna.

2. Farmers look at the damaged tractor.