Deadly Accidents Saturday

Six people were killed on Minnesota roads in four separate crashes on Saturday:

• A two-vehicle crash at the intersection of County Road 40 and County Road 5 west of New London, left two dead and two injured, the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office said. One person was flown to a Twin Cities hospital and another was taken to Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar.

No other details were released.

• Three vehicles collided in Goodhue County, killing two men and injuring a third. That crash happened about 7:30 p.m. near Hwy. 52 and County Road 9.

The State Patrol was investigating and had no further details.

• A 37-year-old man died early Saturday when his pickup truck went off the road on Hwy. 169 on Minnesota’s Iron Range, the patrol reported.

The pickup was heading south on the wet highway about 3 miles south of Keewatin shortly after 2:30 a.m. when it went into the ditch and rolled over. The truck’s driver was thrown from the vehicle and the man died at the scene.

A passenger in the truck was taken to University Medical Center-Mesabi in Hibbing. The passenger’s condition was unknown.

Their names have not been released.

• Another one-vehicle fatality occurred shortly before 9 a.m. in Faribault, the patrol reported. A southbound car went off Lyndale Avenue near Division Street and hit a metal power pole, killing the driver.

His name wasn’t released.

Pedestrian, bicyclist deaths in Minn. down so far in ’11

Pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in Minnesota are down sharply so far this year, when compared with 2010, state public safety officials reported Friday.

So far in 2011, there have been 18 pedestrian fatalities and three deaths involving bicyclists, according to the state Department of Public Safety (DPS). At this time last year, deaths totaled 25 for pedestrians and eight for bicyclists.

Officials said they are hopeful that 2011 could end up as one of the least-deadly years for walkers and pedalers in the past decade. When combining the two categories, the lowest yearly death total since 2001 is 37 (four cyclists and 33 pedestrians) in 2007.

This year certainly has an excellent chance of being less deadly than last year for pedestrians and bicyclists (45), a combined total fueled by seven walkers being killed in October.

“Drivers must treat every corner and intersection as a crosswalk, whether it’s marked or unmarked, and stop for crossing pedestrians,” Gordy Pehrson, of the DPS Office of Traffic Safety, said in a statement released with the latest statistics.

In a message for pedestrians, Pehrson added that a crosswalk’s “white painted lines don’t protect you from distracted motorists.”

The 36 pedestrian deaths last year represented a 12 percent decrease from 2009 (41). Of those pedestrians killed in 2010, 34 percent had blood-alcohol levels of 0.08 percent or higher, according to the DPS.

As a group, pedestrians and bicyclists comprise nearly 10 percent of all traffic fatalities each year. Seventy-one percent of fatal crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists occur in urban areas.

1 Dead, 1 Injured, Motorcycle-Deer Crash

AVON, Minn. (AP) – One person has died and another has been critically injured in a collision between a motorcycle and a deer in Stearns County.

The sheriff’s department says 47-year-old passenger, Laura Ann Tenvoorde-Behrend, was killed the motorcycle hit a deer about 8 p.m. Wednesday in Avon Township.

The driver, 49-year-old David Behrend, was injured and taken to St. Cloud Hospital where a spokeswoman says he is in critical condition.

 

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Driver hits and runs in St. Paul

A car hit and injured two construction workers in St. Paul early Thursday, and the driver fled on foot and left behind two banged-up passengers and a loaded pistol, authorities said.

The crash happened about 12:30 a.m. on the ramp from southbound Hwy. 280 to westbound Interstate 94, according to the State Patrol.

The car hit a trash container and then a water truck in the construction zone, said Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske. Two construction workers were knocked down in the process but had “very minor” injuries, Roeske said.

The driver ran from the scene, Roeske said. The two passengers with minor injuries “claimed not to know who the driver was.”

There’s no further word on why a loaded pistol was in the car.

Woman, 76, Run over crossing road, killed

A 76-year-old woman was run over and killed Monday morning in southern Dakota County when she stepped in front of a car near her mailbox, across the highway from her home, authorities said.

Alonza C. Raway, of Hampton, was struck shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Hwy. 50, just east of Hampton, according to the State Patrol.

Two-lane Hwy. 50 was closed for hours in both directions east of Hwy. 52 as investigators worked the scene.

“We believe she may have had to cross the street to get the paper and was returning to her house,” said Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske.

The vehicle involved was a Honda Civic driven by Mark A. Coulter, 56, of Hastings, the patrol said. Coulter was not hurt.

On Monday, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Department released information about a fatal motorcycle crash Saturday night in Fridley. Nicholas A. Oweczynsky, 24, of Coon Rapids, died at Hennepin County Medical Center after the crash, which happened at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of University Avenue and 73rd Avenue NE. Oweczynsky lost control during a turn and crashed to the pavement, resulting in multiple injuries, including massive head trauma, police said. He was not wearing a helmet.