Man jumps from moving truck to get his hat and is run over, cops say. Driver sentenced
A Minnesota man was sentenced to jail in the 2023 death of a passenger he hit when the man jumped from his truck, authorities said.
The 22-year-old Annandale driver was convicted on May 29 of failure to stop resulting in injury or death of a person, court records show. Joseph W. Schneider was sentenced to 30 days in Wright County Jail and three years of supervised probation, according to court records.
McClatchy News was unable to locate contact information for his attorney.
On July 15 around 1:30 a.m., a group of Camp Friendship counselors left an Annandale bar in the bed of a pickup truck driven by Schneider, whom they met for the first time that night, court documents say.
Witnesses said Alexander Hilsgen, a 24-year-old passenger, jumped out of the moving vehicle because his hat flew off his head and he said he needed to go get it, according to the probable cause document.
Hilsgen was not associated with Camp Friendship but was at the bar that night and “tagged along” for the ride, police said.
A passenger “described feeling a big bump” after Hilsgen jumped from the truck, authorities said.
Surveillance footage from the camp premises where the incident occurred shows the truck running over Hilsgen, and the driver running to his body in the road before driving away, police said.
Hilsgen was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office said Hilsgen died from blunt force injuries consistent with being run over by a vehicle, according to authorities.
The driver did not report the incident or stay at the scene to give authorities his information, police said.
He was charged with failure to stop and failure to notify police of personal injury or death, according to court records.
Wright County Attorney Brian Lutes told the Star Tribune that because Schneider “was not the cause of the crash … it was not a criminal vehicular operation case.”
Annandale is about a 50-mile drive northwest from Minneapolis.
This story was originally published May 30, 2024 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Man jumps from moving truck to get his hat and is run over, cops say. Driver sentenced."
