A trial date of September 9th in Cheyenne County District Court has been set for the Illinois truck driver blamed for a crash in Interstate 80 near Sidney last September 9th that killed 4 members of a Maryland family and their unborn child.

Josef  Slezak is charged with 4 counts of manslaughter, 4 counts of vehicular homicide, and 1 count of vehicular homicide of an unborn child in the deaths of Christopher and Diana Schmidt, their two young children, and their unborn son.

Slezak is accused of driving from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Sidney without taking a break…exceeding federal rest regulations for truckers by several hours…then falling asleep at the wheel and slamming his rig into traffic stopped on the freeway by an earlier fatal accident involving two other trucks.

Slezak’s semi crashed into the back of Christopher Schmidt’s car, pushing Schmidt’s car into a second car driven by his pregnant wife and carrying their 2 children. The family was in the midst of moving from Maryland to California.