Three extricated from vehicles in Friday night accident

Firefighters used the “jaws of life” to cut three people out of two vehicles Friday night, Feb. 3, after a Chevy pickup truck hit a Toyota Camry at the intersection of Highway 33 and Frontage Road just after 10:30 p.m.

All three accident victims were transported by Cloquet Area Fire District personnel to Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, where they were treated and released, according to Cloquet police officer Mark Laine.

CAFD Chief Kevin Schroeder said personnel from both the Cloquet and Scanlon stations responded to the call, and were on the scene for approximately 50 minutes.

“We moved all three people – they all had to be extricated – out of their vehicles and to the hospital in 50 minutes, that’s excellent,” Schroeder said.

Although firefighters were able to remove the two people from the Camry fairly quickly, the truck required a more prolonged extrication. According to the CAFD website, “Stabilization struts and cribbing were utilized to secure the vehicle, windows were broken out and the roof removed to gain access to the patient.”

Names of the people involved in the accident are not being released yet, Laine said, because charges are possible, pending results of blood tests sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). A supplemental police report filed by Cloquet police officers is also not public before charges are filed.

However, according to the incident report (ICR) recorded by dispatch – which is available to the public –when police arrived on the scene, they found both vehicles off the road.

Photographs show the truck was on its side, while the Camry was upright in the ditch, with its driver-side doors nearly ripped off. The report notes that the driver of the truck [identified only by the number TBN186 in the report] “had strong odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from her.”

According to the ICR, the accident occurred after the truck, which was traveling north on Frontage Road, crossed into the opposite lane of traffic and hit the second vehicle, which had just crossed Highway 33 and was traveling west onto Frontage Road.

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