A spell of sudden winter weather this past week helped to contribute to at least one of two serious accidents in the area.
An accident involving a semi truck and a mid-size vehicle resulted in serious but non-threatening injuries to a motorist at the intersection of Highway 45 and 29th Street in Cloquet last Tuesday, January 16, at approximately 2:30 p.m.
The name of the victim in the vehicle has not been released. The driver of the semi-truck was unharmed.
According to witnesses, the driver of the vehicle allegedly pulled in front of the semi-truck, and the semi was unable to stop in time. The "jaws of life" extraction equipment was needed to free the driver of the car from it.
- The Minnesota State Patrol responded to another accident on Highway 23 near Holyoke on the night of Sunday, Jan. 21, at approximately 5:18 p.m.
A 1998 Honda Civic driven by Paul L. Donahue, 39, of Nickerson had apparantly run off the road and struck a tree, breaking the vehicle in half.
Members of the state patrol report that road conditions were icy at the time of the accident.
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Donahue later died of his injuries. The incident report indicates he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident and the airbags on his vehicle deployed, but the severity of the crash was too great for Donahue to survive it.
Pine Journal publisher/reporter Wendy Johnson can be contacted at: mgilderman@pinejournal.com .
Pine Journal Editor Mat Gilderman can be contacted at: mgilderman@pinejournal.com .
