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Woman dies in another I-35 crash
Death is the 14th traffic fatality this year in Freeborn County
Published Thursday, December 18, 2008
A 56-year-old woman from Ames, Iowa, died during a crash on Interstate 35 Wednesday morning.
According to Minnesota State Patrol reports, at about 8:40 a.m. a 2004 Dodge pickup was traveling southbound on Interstate 35 when it went through the median near mile marker 11 and struck a 2005 Toyota van that was traveling northbound.
The van spun into a 2007 Freightliner semi that was also traveling northbound, when the semi went down into an embankment and ended up in a field, reports stated.
Barbara Finch, the driver of the van, was killed. Her passenger Erin Finch, 25, received non-lifethreatening injuries.
The roads were icy at the time of the incident.
Mile 11 is near Exit 11, the interchange with Freeborn County Road 46 where many truckers come to stop at Albert Lea truck stops.
Officials closed both northbound lanes of I-35 from U.S. Highway 65 to Freeborn County Road 46 for about 45 minutes, after which the inside lane was opened to drivers.
The outer lane was still closed for a portion of the day for state troopers to reconstruct how the wreck happened.
In the pickup, driver Karl N. Grubbs, 47, of Rimrock, Ariz., received minor injuries and passenger Donna Grubbs, 63, also of Rimrock, received non-lifethreatening injuries, according to the State Patrol report.
The driver of the semi, Robert D. Brandt, 64, of Litchfield, received no apparent injury, the report stated.
It has been a particularly bloody year on the highways and byways of Freeborn County. The death is the 14th traffic fatality on 2008. Last year there were two.
The high numbers of traffic deaths in 2008 have law enforcement and highway engineers concerned.
The 13th death of 2008 was on Main Street in Myrtle, when a 3-year-girl was runover Tuesday. The 12th was on Dec. 4, when an 80-year-old Nebraska man died when the 2000 Chevy pickup he was riding in lost control, entered a ditch and struck a tree on an icy part of Interstate 35 west of Geneva. The 11th happened on Veterans Day, when a woman lost control of her 2004 Chevy Suburban on northbound I-35 near Exit 8 when it was struck by a 2005 Dodge truck.
Three of Freeborn County’s fatalities occurred at the site of a washout on Freeborn County Road 34 in Oakland Township in June.
Two others took place as a result of a head-on collision on southbound Interstate 35 near the state line after a pickup crossed the median and hit another pickup in August.
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Comments
Posted by snowbird (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 9:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is another incident caused by not using common sense and driving to fast for the conditions. As usual someone else suffers from the southbound drivers carelessness. Drive according to the weather, this will let you get where you are going and not put anyone else in danger.
Posted by justmealmn (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 11:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Your sooo very correct snowbird....that would help in so many cases. just S L O W D O W N.
Posted by hatewinter (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I strongly believe that the person from AZ that caused this fatal accident should be charged with vehicular homicide, and 1 count of manslaughter.
Until people start getting charged for their negligence they will keep driving and killing innocent people when they had zero business being out when they could not drive on ice or snow. AZ does not have winter driving conditions and it is negligence to drive in MN without knowledge of how to drive. Now a woman is dead. Others will die unless a clear message is sent. This woman was a GEM & will be missed. She was a former state legislator from Iowa, a Farm Bureau President, and a mother of 3, and a loving wife.
She will be missed.
Charge the driver with vehicular homicide. Do the right thing.
Posted by charlie55 (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't know if vehicular homicide is the answer, unless you know the situation and the actual circumstances, were you in that man's vehicle? And just because he had AZ plates doesn't mean that he didn't know how to drive in these conditions. He maybe wasn't always from AZ. I feel horrible for the families in all three vehicles involved as anyone of them could have lost there lives. I think what we need is help from the state to continue the median barriers that are noth I35, they need to continue it south now towards us, they do save lives.
Posted by anasgrammy (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 12:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
i agree that people have to slow down and drive according to road conditions but...all these accidents caused by icy road conditions. why weren't they salted? whose job is it to insure the roads are safe for driving?
Posted by charlie55 (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 12:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't know if you were out on the roads that morning, but my spouse and I were and must of passed that stretch moments before the accident and we even commented how clear the interstate was besides a few patches and that area was one of the icy patches.
Posted by canarybird (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think saying "it's been a particularly bloody year" is a poor choice of words. A bit too grisly. How about "a particularly dangerous year"? Or "a year with many fatalities"? But that sentence is very insensitive, and sounds like something a cheap tabloid would write.
Posted by Jake (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 3:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Charging someone with vehicular homicide is not going to be a deterrent for other drivers. That's ridiculous. It was an ACCIDENT, and they happen. Control can be lost on icy/snowy roads no matter what speed you are driving. Everyone who drives knows there is a risk in going out on less than perfect driving conditions, from themselves and from others. If that were your stance, then everyone who lost control of a vehicle on icy roads should be charged with reckless driving...not going to happen.
Posted by coachingu (anonymous) on December 18, 2008 at 6:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Responding to Charlie55, I came upon that accident going southbound in a semi about 9:30. The fire truck was still there at the accident and I noticed the crushed van.
I was cruising at 67 mph because the right lane I was driving in was clear - it was not icy.
Believe me, if I had noticed ice I would have slowed immediately, because I am spooked by that stretch from AL to the border.
I think there was another reason for that vehicle to cross the median.
Posted by Cheyenne (anonymous) on December 19, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
coachingu
What do you think the reason was?
Posted by c_her (anonymous) on December 22, 2008 at 11:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
My heart and prayers go out to the victims and their familiies during this difficult time.
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