Failure to Yield Cause of 2 Crashes in Minnesota

The following information is from the Minnesota State Patrol.

On Christmas day, a 2014 Dodge Ram traveling southbound on Highway 65 failed to yield at the intersection of Highway 2 in Itasca County and hit a Toyota Camry that was traveling eastbound on Highway 2. The driver of the Camry, Kate Alain Tysdal of Thief River Falls, Minnesota, was injured. She was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.

At the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 65, there are stop signs for Highway 65 traffic with additional signs on them that read: “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop.” The “cross traffic” is traffic on Highway 2. Therefore, any vehicle traveling on 65 has to stop for 2 traffic. That did not happen in this case, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

Also in Itasca County, on December 24, 2017, a Chevrolet Colorado pickup failed to yield the right-of-way when entering Highway 169 from Highway 65. The pickup pulled out into the path of a Chevy Cobalt that had been traveling northbound on Highway 169. Injured in the crash were the driver of the Chevy car, Andrew James Vascot, and his two passengers, Alexis Nicole Jauregui, from Baldwin Park, California, and Joel Christopher Kunze, from St. Cloud, Minnesota. They were transported to UMCM Hibbing. All of them had been wearing seat belts.

At the intersection of Highway 169 and Highway 65, there is a stop sign for 65 traffic, but not for 169 traffic. Highway 169 is a divided highway with 4 lanes.

Minnesota law regarding failure to yield the right-of-way is found in Minnesota Statutes, Section 169.20. In the cases above, given the placement of the stop signs, it appears that there is little doubt that the drivers of the Dodge Ram pickup and the Chevrolet Colorado pickup were at fault.