By Bruce Karnick

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Accidents are never fun, especially in the cold of a Minnesota winter. Unfortunately, two area drivers were involved in what is believed to be a two-car accident on Sunday evening. Sgt. David Brown was the officer in charge, and he gave The Journal a situational update on scene.

“Right now, we’re investigating a vehicle accident, we know at least two vehicles are involved. We have, I believe, two injured parties at this point. Hastings Fire is still trying to determine if,” Brown pauses to listen to the radio. “We don’t believe that there is anybody else. We believe it’s just two vehicles. Hastings Fire is evaluating both occupants of both vehicles, I do not know the extent of the injuries.”

“We do have a light pole that was struck and that has affected the power of the neighborhood. Just looking at houses, I can see at least one block in every direction. The next city light I see is two blocks away. Xcel Energy is on scene trying to get power back up. They had to make sure the scene was safe before EMS was able to extract the second driver. Just make sure that the vehicle wasn’t energized, there are down lines throughout the area,” Sgt. Brown explained.

The accident occurred at 4:16 p.m. Sunday evening. Sgt. Brown spoke at 5:17. That was about the time that EMS was able to help the second driver out of her car. One witness, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene, spoke with both drivers. According to the witness, both drivers appeared to be responsive with no obvious life-threatening injuries. The male driver of the sedan had a lower body injury that prevented him from walking, so he had to stay in his vehicle until EMS arrived. The driver of the SUV was forced to stay in her seat for about an hour until Xcel verified the lines touching the car were not live. The extraction of the second driver was simply helping her out safely once the area was deemed not energized. Further eyewitness accounts shared on social media indicate it was a head on collision. As of Monday afternoon, there were no official word from investigators on that. The road conditions were the typical road conditions for a Minnesota winter in January a few days after a snow fall. As far as what happened? “We’re still trying to do our investigation. Now that the second driver is out, we can start asking people questions, trying to figure out what happened,” Sgt. Brown said.

See Accident Page 3

A two-vehicle accident on Sunday evening had 15th Street between Walnut and Ashland blocked for over an hour with power lines down in the area. The photo on the left is approximately 15 minutes after the accident, the one on the right about 45 minutes. That half hour dramatically changed visibility for first responders and the Xcel Energy crew working to restore power. Both photos show different power lines down. Photos by Bruce Karnick Accident

From Page 1

Thankfully, initial reports from witnesses indicate no life-threatening injuries, other than the two vehicles and the light pole, it seemed there was no other property damage. Thanks to the quick response of Xcel energy, reports on social media indicate power was back on to some of the blocks within an hour and a half, other folks were not so lucky. Initial estimates had the repairs being completed by 7:30. At midnight, Xcel Energy’s outage page was still showing the outage was active and affecting 57 households. Power was not restored until just after 1:10 a.m. on Monday, nearly nine hours after it went out.

Thank you to Sgt. Brown for taking time for the interview and a special thanks to the area residents for the eyewitness accounts, and to all the folks on the Hastings, MN Community Facebook page for assistance with the timeline and updates on the repairs.