State Center, Iowa Head-On Crash Kills McCallsburg Woman, Leaves Teen Driver Critically Hurt
Lindsey Daleske, 41, of McCallsburg died at a hospital after a 15-year-old driver crossed into her lane in a no-passing zone on Eastman Avenue north of State Center on Friday afternoon, the Iowa State Patrol said.
Key points
- A head-on crash north of State Center killed a Story County woman and left a teenage driver with life-threatening injuries on Friday afternoon, according to an Iowa State Patrol crash report.
- The crash happened at about 4 p.m. on Friday, November 6, at Eastman Avenue and 190th Street, about five miles north of State Center in Marshall County.
- Lindsey Richelle Daleske, 41, of McCallsburg, was driving north on Eastman Avenue in a 2018 Kia Optima.
A head-on crash north of State Center killed a Story County woman and left a teenage driver with life-threatening injuries on Friday afternoon, according to an Iowa State Patrol crash report.
The crash happened at about 4 p.m. on Friday, November 6, at Eastman Avenue and 190th Street, about five miles north of State Center in Marshall County.
What the patrol report says
Lindsey Richelle Daleske, 41, of McCallsburg, was driving north on Eastman Avenue in a 2018 Kia Optima. A 15-year-old was driving south in a 2013 Kia Sorento and tried to pass multiple vehicles in a designated no-passing zone, according to the patrol. The Sorento met the Optima head on in the northbound lane near 190th Street.
UnityPoint EMS took Daleske to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The patrol report says she was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision. The teenage driver, who was wearing a seatbelt, was also taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. The patrol has not named the teenager, and no update on the teenager's condition had been released in the reports published on Saturday.
Response and investigation
State Center police, State Center fire and EMS crews, the Marshall County Sheriff's Office, UnityPoint EMS and the Marshalltown Fire Department all responded to the crash, along with the Iowa State Patrol.
The crash remains under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol. The reports published on Saturday did not announce any charges or citations. The patrol's account of the crash reached the public on Saturday, when the Des Moines Register and Radio On The Go published the details from the crash report.
Daleske was from McCallsburg, a small town in Story County. State Center sits in Marshall County, and the crash site on Eastman Avenue is a rural stretch of road north of the city.
What is not known yet
The patrol report gives the basic shape of the crash, and the open questions sit with the investigation. The patrol has not said why the Sorento driver chose to pass where the road was marked against it, and it has not released any information about speed. No funeral or memorial information for Daleske had been published in the Saturday reports. Anyone who saw the crash and has not spoken with investigators is part of a case the patrol says is still open, and the next facts in this story will come from that investigation.
Timeline
- Nov 6, 2026At about 4 p.m., a 2013 Kia Sorento driven by a 15-year-old tries to pass multiple vehicles in a no-passing zone on Eastman Avenue north of State Center and hits a northbound 2018 Kia Optima head on near 190th Street.
- Nov 6, 2026Lindsey Daleske, 41, of McCallsburg, is pronounced dead at a hospital. The teenage driver is taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
- Nov 7, 2026The Des Moines Register and Radio On The Go publish the Iowa State Patrol account of the crash. The patrol investigation continues.