106.9 KROC-FM logo
Get our free mobile app

Car crashes can be scary any time of year but they're especially scary when the roads are covered with ice and snow in Minnesota as this video shows.

If you've lived in Minnesota for any length of time, you're used to dealing with ice and snow on our roads and highways, right? Heck, here in the Land of 10,000 (Frozen and Snow-Covered) Lakes, Old Man Winter can send us snowflakes pretty much anytime from October through May.

And while we're all used to driving in winter conditions, sometimes it takes driving in the snow and slush the first time each season to remember that we need to drive slower and give ourselves more time to stop.

Those winter conditions affect every driver, but especially those first responders who oftentimes have to drive over the speed limit while on their way to a crash or other emergency. It's why we're all supposed to move over to the should whenever we see an emergency vehicle with its flashing lights approaching.

Unfortunately, not every driver does that, as this video from the Southeast Metro Fire News Twitter page shows. In footage taken from a MnDOT traffic camera, it shows a Minnesota State Patrol cruiser t-bone a vehicle in the intersection of Highway-55 and Mendota Heights Road in Mendota Heights.

We don't know much more about the crash other than what the video shows, which is a vehicle at the intersection, which appears to have the green light. The vehicle drives halfway into the intersection and then stops just before the State Patrol squad car, with its emergency lights activated, approaches the intersection and then slams into the vehicle.

Hopefully, no one was hurt in the crash, which apparently happened Thursday night. It looks to me like the pavement might have been icy, which could have prevented the State Patrol squad from either stopping or swerving to avoid the stopped vehicle. And, had the other vehicle just kept going instead of stopping in the middle of the lane, it likely would have avoided the crash in the first place. (I'm merely speculating, however.)

Listen to Curt St. John in the Morning
Weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5

Are You Prepared For A MN Winter? Keep These 10 Items in Your Car

The cold is here, and that means the snow isn't far behind. Are you ready to tackle Minnesota roads this winter? Do you have these ten items in your car?

More From 106.9 KROC-FM