An Aug. 11 crash on Interstate 35 near Faribault seriously injured one person and killed another. The Minnesota State Patrol reports that four vehicles with 10 total occupants were involved in the collision, which happened around 11:45 a.m.
Troopers reported that a 40-year-old St. Paul man looked down while he was driving his Chevrolet Avalanche momentarily. While doing so, police state he slammed into the back of a Kia Sorento that was stopped with traffic in front of him. The troopers stated he hit the car while traveling at highway speeds. The force of that collision caused the Kia to crash into the back of a Subaru, which then hit a Ford Edge.
Law enforcement officers stated that the driver of the Kia was killed in the crash. A 63-year-old woman who was a passenger in the vehicle was transported to the hospital for treatment of serious injuries. Sources do not indicate what the conditions of the occupants of the other vehicles were.
Looking away from the road at a cellphone or other devices can have deadly consequences. When a person is killed by a distracted driver, surviving family members may face significant adverse financial consequences in addition to the grief over the sudden loss of a loved one. In addition to funeral and burial expenses, family members may have to find a way to replace the contributions to household expenses that the decedent had been making. In the event that the accident was caused by the negligence of another motorist, an attorney could assist in seeking compensation for those losses through the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit against the at-fault driver.
Source: CBS Minnesota, “State patrol: 1 dead, 1 seriously hurt in Faribault crash involving 10 people,” Aug. 13, 2016