BELT092507

Four die in weekend traffic accidents

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune

Last update: September 24, 2007 - 7:04 PM

Four people - all under age 30 - died over the weekend in traffic accidents on Minnesota roads and three of them were not wearing seat belts, the Department of Public Safety said.

The deaths raised the total of traffic-related fatalities on state roads this year to 360, up from 344 at this time last year. The state recorded 474 deaths in 2006, the lowest total since 1945.

Minnesota State Patrol is investigating three fatal crashes. The first happened Friday when Bryan White, 29, of Osceola, Wis., went off the road while driving on northbound Interstate Hwy. 35W, went into the median and rolled into the southbound lanes near where the freeway joins with I-35E in Forest Lake. White was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from his 2000 Ford Contour. He died at the scene.

In Carver County, two Minnetonka High School students died when the car they were in left County Road 40 and rolled over. Kylie Grayden, 17, of Shorewood, died at the scene. Kelly Phillips, 17, was ejected and died Saturday at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. A third person in the car, Mitchell Grengs, 17, was wearing a seat belt and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Grengs and Grayden, who was driving, was wearing a seat belt; Phillips was not, the State Patrol said.

A man from Pelican Rapids, Minn. died at 4:20 a.m. Saturday when his Buick LeSabre left Hwy. 32 near the intersection of Clay County Road 119 and rolled over. The car landed on its roof and Joshua Hendrickson, 23, was ejected and died at the scene.

Each year, one-third of those killed in traffic accidents are not wearing seat belts and those ages 16 to 29 have the lowest rate of seat belt usage among Minnesota drivers, the Department of Public Safety said.

Tim Harlow • harlow@startribune.com