Fire Truck Crash in Yellow Medicine County Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Injured

Sep 27

Written By MN CRIME

A 43-year-old passenger died and two others were injured Friday night when a Wood Lake fire truck overturned in Yellow Medicine County.

Authorities say the crash happened around 6:36 p.m. on Sept. 26, near Lakeview School in Cottonwood.

Dispatch received a report of a single-vehicle crash on 490th Street, about one-eighth of a mile north of 160th Avenue.

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First responders arrived to find the fire truck on its side in the west ditch. The truck had been traveling north when it overturned with three people inside. One person was found trapped beneath the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. Their name has not yet been released, pending family notification.

Two others in the truck, 37-year-old Andrew Vanhecke, and 6-year-old Beaux Vanhecke, of Wood Lake, were taken to Avera Marshall Hospital before being flown to Avera Sioux Falls by air ambulance. Their current conditions have not been released.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, Minnesota State Patrol, Granite Falls Ambulance, Cottonwood Ambulance, Cottonwood Fire Department, Midwest Medical Examiner, Pulver’s Towing and Hamilton Funeral Home all assisted at the scene.

Yellow Medicine County Sheriff Bill Flaten said the crash remains under investigation.

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