Teen sentenced in fatal wrong way crash

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Madison-area teenager has been sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison for driving drunk in the wrong highway lane and causing a crash that killed a woman and seriously injured her boyfriend.

Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi said 18-year-old Nathan Zander made a series of bad decisions that led to the September 2009 crash that killed 28-year-old Mackenzie Reynolds and sent her boyfriend, Jerry Kurt, to the hospital for a month.

Sumi called Zander a “good guy” who committed a “grievous series of mistakes.” Zander drank beer and smoked marijuana at a party before getting in the car and driving west in the eastbound lanes of Highway 18/151 in Springdale. He hit the victims’ car head-on.

According to the State Journal, Zander pleaded no contest to homicide by drunken driving and causing great bodily harm by drunken driving.

Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj