(UPDATED) – Slick Conditions Contributed to Hundreds of Crashes
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The light snow that fell across parts of Minnesota made for a very bad day to travel.
The State Patrol says it received reports of over 420 traffic crashes statewide between 8 AM and 2:30 PM on Saturday. 46 of the crashes resulted in injuries and one fatal crash was reported in Blue Earth County. Details concerning the fatality have not been released.
Two of the injury crashes were among the many traffic incidents reported in the Rochester area in the late morning and early afternoon. Both occurred on Highway 52 and snarled traffic for a considerable amount of time.
The first involved 3 vehicles and was reported just after 12 Noon. The State Patrol says an SUV, pickup truck and a minivan were all traveling north between the 19th Street and 37th Street interchanges when they collided. A passenger in the minivan, a 49-year-old woman from Missouri, was taken to St. Marys Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The other Rochester crash occurred about 20 minutes later on northbound Highway 52 at the Mayowood Road overpass. Three teenagers were in a car that slid out of control and crashed. The 17-year-old girl driving the car, who was not identified in the State Patrol report, and one of her passengers, 19-year-old Kristen Herman of Stacyville, Iowa, were transported to St. Marys for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The other passenger, a 19-year-old man from Brownsville, was not hurt.