Another Wintry Week Makes For Many Collisions

This past week saw too many tragedies on Minnesota roads. It snowed, there was fog, and it rained this past week, so the roads were slick and dangerous. There was also a little sun that usually drives speeds up. Frozen and slick roads made for tragic events.

• Sunday afternoon, there was a multiple car pile up on I-94. An 18-year-old Eagle Lake man died after being hit by a vehicle on I-94 that set off a chain reaction of accidents. There were at least 15 vehicles that ended up in the ditch between the on and off ramps at the Dalton exit, located on I-94 at mile marker 67.

• Monday morning, Between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. the State Patrol logged 359 property damage crashes, 57 personal injury crashes, and 416 vehicles. In the nine County Metro alone, there were 187 property damage crashes, 29 personal injury crashes, and 158 vehicles off the road.

• Tuesday night, a man fell out of a vehicle and was run over by another car on Highway 694 in Shoreview. The police are still trying to determine why the man left the vehicle.

• Wednesday morning, a tanker truck rolled over on Highway 61 in Hastings. The road was closed for five hours due to a leak.

• Thursday morning, a semi crash closed lanes on U.S. 14 at Dodge County Road 9 between Kasson and Dodge Center

• Friday Morning, Eight students were injured when a Dassel-Cokato school bus and a pickup collided Friday morning in dense fog. The eastbound bus was on Meeker County Road 21 and entered the intersection with Minnesota Highway 15. The reason for the accident is still under investigation.

• That same morning, a Byron woman was injured when her minivan collided with a semi on U.S. 14 in Friday morning’s dense fog.

• Saturday afternoon, 30 cars were involved in 12 crashes, including five rollovers, on a mile stretch of icy Interstate 29 near Sioux Falls, S.D.

• During the week , there were nine separate collisions that involved snowplows. Four of these were in southern Minnesota.

It’s again important that we remind people that we slow down and take it easy. It is still dangerous enough out there to maybe not take longer trips at night. It’s important that people make it where they are going.