SUV crushes Savage woman on camping trip

The fatal freak accident occurred at Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park during an annual getaway with her sons.

By TIM HARLOW and SARAH LEMAGIE, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: June 17, 2008 - 11:50 PM

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A weekend trip ended in tragedy when a Savage woman on an annual camping trip with her two young sons was pinned under a sport-utility vehicle and killed as she tried to hook a camping trailer to it.

Samantha Binetti, 40, and a female friend were hitching the camper to the SUV they had borrowed when "something went wrong" and the vehicles somehow came apart, Fillmore County Sheriff Daryl Jensen said Tuesday.

Binetti was trapped under the SUV and died at the scene, despite efforts by fellow campers at Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park to free her, Jensen said.

"We are still trying to sort out how the vehicles came apart," he said. "This looks like a horrible accident."

The women's children watched as the SUV rolled over Binetti as they were preparing to leave the campground around 10 a.m. Monday, Jensen said.

Binetti, often called Sam, had left home Thursday with her sons -- Mason, 5, and Riley, who turns 11 on Thursday. They went with a neighbor and that woman's young son, leaving Binetti's husband, John, at home, said Julie Bernick, another neighbor. It was the kind of trip Binetti took with her boys at least once a year, teaching them to fish and packing the days with activities, Bernick said.

Days filled with fun

The boys tie-dyed T-shirts and cooked apple pies on a bonfire over the weekend. On Monday, the weather was so good that they were considering a stop at one more campground to fish before coming home, she said.

Bernick said Binetti's brother and father drove to the campground on Monday and described the tragedy as a "very fast, freak accident."

Binetti was a tiny woman who was independent and good at fixing things, said Bernick, who called her a "female MacGyver."

A devoted mother who worked as a mortgage broker and bookkeeper, often from home, she was also the kind of neighbor who shared the family's swimming pool and "fed the world."

"She's probably fed 10,000 people," Bernick said. "She was always at the grill, cooking for her neighbors and family and friends."

In a statement released late Monday, staff of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said they "wish to express their heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of the victim."

The campground near Wykoff, Minn., remained open following the accident, which is still under investigation.

tharlow@startribune.com • 612-673-7768 slemagie@startribune.com • 952-882-9016

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