Van Crashes Onto Football Field During Game.
STANLEY, WI -- It was a frightening scene in Stanley, Wisconsin Friday night. Hundreds of people at a high school football game ran for their lives when a man crashed his van through the fence and into the field goal post.
Stanley police are investigating the crash. They have plenty of first hand accounts and even some home video showing the crash.
Stanley Police Officer Lance Weiland said
More..the crash seems to be an accident that no one could have seen coming.
"I heard him squeal his tires and I look out there... I see a van start pulling through here. The fence goes down and people just scatter all out. I see football players running everywhere grabbing people just sprinting and then all of a sudden the car started swerving, ran right into the pole and then... smoke started coming out and the whole pole just tipped right over" said Steve Patten, Stanley-Boyd High School student.
Spectators rushed to the van doing all they could to help, but most were trying to clear the field.
"I was pretty speechless. I was shocked" said Stanley-Boyd High School student Shawn Stuttgen.
"I was shaking. I was very scared" said Patten.
The tire tracks show the exact path and Stanley police are trying to figure out why 82-year-old Palmer Kroeplin of Stanley crashed into the goal post. Officer Weiland said Kroeplin was apparently preparing to leave the parking lot and may have had some sort of medical problem.
Weiland says Kroeplin claims to have blacked out and doesn't remember the incident, but one witness was thinking otherwise.
"My first thought was that he was after somebody and was gonna hurt somebody, but I didn't know what was going on when he hit the pole" said Stuttgen.
Witness accounts given to police and home video show the Dodge mini-van hit the fence the first time, went in reverse and hit the ambulance. It quickly went into drive, squealed the tires and smashed through the chain linked fence before hitting the goal post.
"Players just started screaming and running. There could have been, 30 to 40 people could have gotten killed there. It was just all luck that they didn't" said Patten.
The game was postponed for about an hour and had to be finished with only one goal post.
Weiland says he talked to Kroeplin Friday night as said he was in good spirits and doing well. Police did not hold Kroeplin Friday night and Weiland doesn't believe any charges will be filed. However, a police investigation is underway.
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Added: Sep 10 2007 In: news_politics
By: barnesy Premium 
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