Video: SUV slams into stopped vehicle along I-35E in Eagan, Minn.
(FOX 9)
EAGAN, Minn. (FOX 9) - A tow truck driver working along I-35E in Eagan, Minnesota narrowly escaped serious injury when a vehicle slammed into a disabled vehicle over the weekend.
The tow truck driver had just pulled a white van out of the ditch near Diffley Road when the SUV lost control and slammed into the rear-end of the van.
The tow truck driver, working for Dick's Valley Service, was knocked flat by the impact of the crash and just narrowly escaped being run over by the vehicles.
"He is very lucky," said Dick's Safety Manager Nealon Thompson.
Thompson describes the call as the worst imaginable in his role. Fortunately, the 30-year-old tow truck driver only suffered minor bumps and bruises after a trip to the hospital. He is expected to be back at work by the end of the week.
"There is a lot of mass," said Thompson. "There’s a lot of mass in motion. Cars weigh between 3,000 and 7,000 pounds. When doing 65 to 70 mph, even 40, a pedestrian with traffic vest on, maybe a hat and boots, you don’t stand a chance."
Adding to the trauma, dispatch was on phone with him when the driver was hit.
"One minute they’re talking to our driver, the next minute, they are not talking to our driver because he was hit," explained Thompson. "Her next phone call is the State Patrol tell her our driver was hit."
Nealon is hoping the video of this near-tragedy gets other drivers to slow down and pay attention to the wintry road conditions.
In this case, the motorist was cited for a failure to drive with due care.