T-Junction supervisor killed in accident

    A pre-Thanksgiving accident Nov. 22 on Highway 61 in Dundy County took the life of a recently-hired supervisor at T-Junction in Imperial.
    Dundy County emergency responders were called late afternoon to the two-vehicle accident about six miles north of Benkelman.
    According to a story in The Benkelman Post, the accident involved a car traveling south on Highway 61 and a pickup headed north. Dundy County Sheriff Justin Nichols said the vehicle first struck a deer on the highway, causing the car to cross the center line and collide head-on with the pickup truck.
    Tyler Wattenberg, 29, who was riding in the car’s front passenger seat, was killed as a result of the accident. His wife, Mercedes, was driving the vehicle, and their three children were also in the car, according to The Benkelman Post story.
    Sheriff Nichols told the Post the Wattenbergs and the pickup driver were all transported to the hospital.
    The sheriff said Mrs. Wattenberg did everything right in driving the car.
    “She didn’t swerve to miss the deer. She hit it in her lane,” he said.
    “Three more seconds, three seconds faster or slower, then the pickup wouldn’t have been there. He was in his lane when they met,” the sheriff told The Benkelman Post.
    The Benkelman rural fire department, Dundy County EMS and the sheriff’s office responded to the call.
    Nichols said he asked the State Patrol to assist at the scene because it was a fatality accident, and they could help recreate the scene.
    The highway was closed for a time on Wednesday to allow law enforcement to reconstruct the accident scene.
    The sheriff said the victim was not wearing a seat belt, and officials are trying to determine if the car’s airbags went off when the deer was hit and then deflated by the time the car and pickup collided just a few seconds later.
    Julie Smith, HR Director at Frenchman Valley Coop, which owns T-Junction, said Wattenberg was hired in mid-October as T-Junction supervisor at the southeast edge of Imperial.
    Her records show Wattenberg was not working at T-Junction that day. She learned of the accident Nov. 23.
    “He was such a nice young man. He was doing a really good job,” Smith said.
    She said the Coop is accepting donations for the family at the T-Junction store in Imperial.