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BAXTER — Afternoon traffic on Highway 371 North in Baxter Thursday, Sept. 8, was reduced to three lanes after a crash left multiple damaged vehicles in its wake.
Shortly after 4 p.m., emergency personnel worked to secure the scene and reopen the highway at the intersection of Highway 371 and Clearwater Road. Traffic backed up to Woida Road.
Steve Kohls / Brainerd Dispatch
A BMW with a crushed back end and visible damage on the front end came to rest in the traffic lane while two other vehicles involved in the crash, a Jeep and a Dodge Ram truck were nearby. The vehicles were towed away from the scene as the Baxter Police Department and the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office gathered information.
Telling her mother to pull the van over after watching the crash, 17-year-old Sadie Soukup said she saw a BMW, traveling south on Highway 371, slowing to let a bicyclist cross the highway when a Jeep rear-ended the BMW, tossing it into a Dodge Ram truck, which was waiting to turn onto Clearwater Road.
“It looked very bad so I told my mom to stop the van,” Soukup said.
Steve Kohls / Brainerd Dispatch
After running to the BMW driver, Soukup said she called 911 while applying a rag to the back of the driver’s head to stop the flow of blood.
Soukup helped the driver of the Jeep to the side of the road. Interviewed at the scene, the driver of the Dodge truck corroborated the events Soukup described.
No other information on the BMW driver’s condition or other injuries or an official report on the sequence of the crash events was available as of Thursday evening. Baxter Chief Jim Exsted said he needed to wait until reports were complete to provide a clearer picture of what happened.
The Baxter Police Department responded to the scene along with the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office, Brainerd Fire Department and North Memorial Health Ambulance.
TIM SPEIER, staff writer, can be reached on Twitter
, call 218-855-5859 or email
tim.speier@brainerddispatch.com
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