MAPLE GROVE, Minn. - Eastbound I-94 has reopened between Rogers and Maple Grove after a delivery truck crossed the median Wednesday morning, killing one person and badly injuring another.
The deadly crash happened just before 6:30 a.m. in the eastbound lanes near Brockton Lane. In a post on Twitter, the State Patrol said the westbound flatbed truck crossed the median and veered into the eastbound lanes, striking five vehicles. One person was declared dead on the scene, and another was airlifted to North Memorial with critical injuries. Four others suffered more minor injuries.
At an afternoon news conference State Patrol spokesperson Lt. Tiffani Nielsen described the crash scene as "horrific." She told reporters that the flatbed delivery truck veered toward the median, vaulted into the air so it struck only the top cable on the high tension cable median barrier, and then landed in the westbound lanes, striking a Chevy pickup and a Kia Optima.
The driver of the pickup, a 40-year-old man from Monticello, was declared dead on the scene. The passenger in the Optima, a 38-year-old woman from Otsego, was airlifted to North Memorial Hospital while the driver, her 40-year-old husband, suffered more minor injuries.
The 53-year-old truck driver is hospitalized with minor injuries. His record includes convictions for driving over the legal alcohol limit and speeding. Nielson says the truck driver was conscious and made a statement to troopers, calling it "unusual." She says the patrol is looking into the possibility that the crash may have been caused by a medical situation. Nielson says alcohol was not involved in the crash.
Drivers and passengers in three other vehicles that were struck were uninjured.
Lt. Nielson publicly thanked a registered nurse who pulled over and jumped out of her vehicle to perform CPR on one of the more seriously injured victims. She says the patrol doesn't know her identity, and is asking anyone who knows who the nurse is to call them.
Traffic was shut down in westbound lanes so the air ambulance could land. While those lanes reopened around 9 a.m., traffic remained at a crawl. Investigators and cleanup crews worked in the eastbound lanes for nearly six hours until the interstate reopened just before 12:30 p.m.
The median at the crash site was lined with steel cable median barriers that are commonly seen around the state.
"It's a steel cable that's strung along the road anywhere from 300 feet to a mile in length," MN Department of Transportation spokesperson Kevin Gutknecht said. "Anchored under pressure on each end and there's about 5,000 pounds of pressure on each of these lines."
In theory, cable median barriers like the ones on I-94 are designed to prevent any vehicle from crossing over. However, this morning the delivery truck somehow crossed over, only clipping the top cable.
Gutknecht says since the cable barriers' initial installation from 14 years ago, they have been efficient in protecting highway drivers.
"We took crash data from three years prior to installation and crash data from three years afterwards and in many if not all those locations, crash fatalities went to zero," Gutknecht said.
However, Gutknecht emphasized that every crash is different. At least in this case, circumstances under investigation by State Patrol may reveal why the barriers weren't enough to stop the truck from crossing over.