FATAL102607

Ice may have led to fatal collision near Buhl

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune

Last update: October 25, 2007 - 10:37 PM

Icy roads might have played a factor in a head-on, two-vehicle crash Wednesday morning that killed a man from Chisholm, Minn.

According to the State Patrol, a woman driving a two-door sport-utility vehicle was heading westbound on Hwy. 169 when it ran off the highway east of Buhl, Minn., in St. Louis County. The woman was identified as Susan Waller, 46, of Virginia, Minn. Her SUV went through the median and into the eastbound lanes, where it collided with a minivan just after 8 a.m.

The minivan driver was airlifted to St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth, where he died while undergoing surgery at 1:41 p.m. Authorities have not released his identity, but they said he was 60 years old.

Waller was taken to Fairview Mesabi Hospital in Hibbing with non-life-threatening injuries, the patrol said.