Ind. driver in ID mix-up crash out of prison

WESTVILLE, Ind. (AP) _ A truck driver was released from prison Friday after serving two years for the traffic deaths of four Taylor University students and a university staff member.

The crash received widespread attention because authorities misidentified one of the dead students, whose parents learned five weeks later that their daughter was alive and recovering in a hospital.

Robert F. Spencer, of Canton Township near Detroit, pleaded guilty last year to reckless homicide and criminal recklessness. Investigators said Spencer fell asleep at the wheel and struck the school van after he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules.

Spencer was given an eight-year prison sentence with four years suspended. He also received credit for good behavior and nearly a year already served before he was sentenced in August 2007.

The daughters of university employee Monica Felver, who died in the crash, said it was too soon for Spencer to be released.

"One second of him falling asleep, and we will suffer for the rest of our lives," Hope Beckley, Amy Atkins and Kelly Montgomery said in a statement released Thursday to the Hartford City News-Times.

A coroner misidentified one of the students killed — Laura VanRyn, 22, of Caledonia, Mich. — as one of the survivors, then-19-year-old Whitney Cerak, of Gaylord, Mich. Cerak has since recovered and returned to school.

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