(UPDATED) Authorities have identified the two people who died as a result of two separate vehicle crashes occurring two miles apart and within 24 hours of each other this week on Interstate 35 north of Rock Creek in Pine County.
The Minnesota State Patrol identified 37-year-old Jeremy T. White of Coon Rapids as the driver who was killed in a three vehicle crash early Tuesday evening Oct. 25.
Then just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, Bruce M. Aaserud, 60, of Blaine, was killed when the northbound pickup truck he was driving ran off the road to the right and struck a steel sign girder.
According to the State Patrol:
The first crash occurred shortly after 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25 when a passenger car, driven by White, was traveling northbound and hit the back end of another northbound car driven by Jorge H. Calvo, 52, of Crystal, Minn.
The White car then lost control and entered the southbound lanes of I-35 where it was broadsided on the driver’s side by a pickup truck driven by Davis L. Cronquist, 67, of Forest Lake.
Cronquist received no-life threatening injuries, while Calvo and his passengers, 24-year-old Hector Camacho, residence unknown, and Hector Calvo, age and residence unknown, received no apparent injuries.
Both the car that White was riding in and the truck were totaled in the crash. The Calvo car received moderate damage.
Road conditions were dry at the time of both crashes.
The conditions of the first accident were NOT dry. It was raining.