June Brings Deadly Weekend on Minnesota Highways

The yearly highway deaths numbers continue to stay down, but we keep seeing these horrible weekends. This weekend was one of those. This was after the Memorial day weekend where four were killed. The good weather in combination with speed and no seat belts has been the usual reason.

• Saturday around 1 p.m. a motorcyclist collided with a truck as he tried to avoid stopped traffic northbound on Hwy. 169 in the twin cities.

• Friday afternoon in Huston County a semitrailer truck’s trailer crossed the centerline of Hwy. 76 in Houston County and struck an oncoming pickup truck, killing the driver.

• In Waseca County, a New Ulm man was killed when he lost control of his car on Hwy. 14, colliding with two parked semis. The State Patrol indicated that he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

• Midday Saturday a Foley woman died after the SUV she was driving crossed the centerline of Hwy. 25 and struck a semi head-on.

• Saturday morning on Hwy. 55 in Maple Lake, an 81 year-old-man was believed to have pulled out in front of another car and crashed. His wife was killed.

Hopefully, increased police presence and discussion about this incidents will save some lives over the rest of the month. Early numbers show that as of the end of May, 102 people have died on Minnesota roads which is above the 96 at that time last year. It projects to over 400 deaths in 2013.

Our sympathies go out to all of those involve who were injured or lost. As with any death in a Minnesota motor vehicle collision, there are a number of issues that will need to be reviewed. My partner, Joe Crumley, addressed this topic in a article for the Minnesota Lawyers Trial magazine. I was interviewed on the same topic.