Fire erupted. The dump truck has slid off the shoulder and polowed through earth into the borrow pit. The crash was between Coates and Hampton. U.S. Highway 52 was closed all afternoon. Image: Minnesota Transportation Department
Three vehicles in construction zone pile-up
COATES, Minn. – A driver died when his sedan veered across the median and struck a dump truck in a construction zone. First-responders said that Gabriel Christopher Lilja, 29, of St. Paul, was dead when they arrived. The crash was about 11:45 a.m. on a four-lane straight stretch of U.S. 52 50 miles north of Rochester. Lilja was heading north toward St. Paul. The State Patrol said the driver of the dump truck, George Bardon, 39, of nearby Welch, was taken 20 miles to a St. Paul hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Debris from the crash struck a third vehicle, which rear-ended the dump truck. The driver, Deborah Dolsky, 66, of Apple Valley, was not injured.