Spring: Warmer Weather And Higher Speeds

It’s real nice to see the 70’s back for temperatures in Minnesota. It’s great to see the grass greening up and no more mounds of snow taking up parking spaces. The problem is that better roads often means faster driving. It’s probably not a coincidence, that the first week of snow and the first week of sunny sky’s means an unfortunate increased number of deaths on Minnesota roads.

This past week saw seven deaths which included:

• A two car Wednesday in Wilmar at the intersection of Business Highway 71 and County Road 24 which killed one.
• The Saturday evening death of a woman that was hit in St Paul by a car that was fleeing the police.
• A Highway 30 crash of large trucks that killed both a Minnesota man and Iowa man in central Iowa.
• A St. Paul man died when he rolled his car while exiting Interstate 35W just south of downtown Minneapolis trying to enter eastbound Interstate 94 shortly after midnight Tuesday.
• Four were critically injured when a pick up truck in Blaine crossed the center line and hit an on coming car last Sunday night.
• A Buffalo man lost control of his motorcycle and was killed last Saturday night.

As with bed weather, it’s important that everyone SLOW DOWN. At a time when the number of overall road deaths is decreasing these sudden rises in horrible loses should be heeded.

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 recent article for the Minnesota Lawyers Trial magazine. I was interviewed last year on the same topic. In this case, sorrow for the families of those involved goes out.