Another parent sues Iowa City bar over deadly 2010 crash

Another parent who lost a child in a deadly car crash in Johnson County in 2010 is suing the Wildwood Smokehouse and Saloon in Iowa City on accusations the bar sold too much alcohol to the driver involved in the accident.

Joseph W. Vinopal Jr. 26, of La Crosse, Wis., Heather L. Althiser, 27, of Onalaska, Wis., and Rebecca J. Frea, 27, and Jason R. Onsgard, 27, both of Iowa City, were traveling on Herbert Hoover Highway in Johnson County on July 25, 2010, when their vehicle lost control and rolled downhill, according to the Iowa State Patrol.

All four were pronounced dead at the scene.

Vinopal's parents filed a lawsuit against Wildwood Smokehouse and Saloon earlier this month, and Althiser's father – individually and as administrator for his daughter  and for her mother – filed a similar suit against the bar last week.

According to the lawsuit filed by Howard E. Althiser Sr. on Thursday, Frea owned the vehicle that Onsgard was driving on the night of the accident. He accuses the bar of selling liquor to Onsgard to the point where servers “knew or should have known that Jason Onsgard would become intoxicated.”

He also accuses the bar of serving liquor to Onsgard after he was intoxicated, and Althiser goes on to say that Onsgard was drunk at the time of the accident and his intoxication caused the crash and the death of his daughter, according to the lawsuit.

Althiser – like Vinopal's parents – is asking for a jury trial to determine whether his family is entitled to damages resulting from the “wrongful death” of his child, according to the lawsuit.

Family members at the time of the crash told The Gazette that Frea and Onsgard were celebrating a recent engagement with Althiser and Vinopal on the night of the accident. Frea's mother, Vicki Frea, said the group had been at the Wildwood bar, where Onsgard worked as a part-time bouncer and bar tender.

Howard Althiser told The Gazette at the time that his daughter worked as a cosmetologist and owned her own massage therapy business in La Cross. She had been dating Vinopal since March, and the couple was in love, Althiser said.

They came to Iowa together to celebrate the engagement of Frea and Onsgard, who Heather had met while attending school in La Cross, according to Althiser.