Construction flagman killed near Chaska is ID'd

Star Tribune

Last update: May 16, 2008 - 9:02 PM

The flagman killed by a motorist Thursday morning in Carver County was Leo Kuisle of Stewartville, Minn., authorities reported Friday.

Kuisle, 47, was hit in a construction zone about 7 a.m. as he held up a stop sign to let equipment cross the highway near Mount Hope Road, said Kent Barnard, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT).

"He was a good husband, a good father, a good grandpa, a good guy," Kellie Kuisle, his wife, said Friday night. "He loved his job, he loved the people that he worked with."

Kuisle was born and raised in Rochester, where he graduated high school and attended vocational college, his wife said. The couple had been married for 15 years, living in Stewartville the whole time.

Kuisle's cousin Bill Kuisle was a longtime state representative from the Rochester area.

Kuisle was a foreman for Zumbro River Contractors and was helping with the Hwy. 212 project west of Chaska when he was struck by a Ford Excursion SUV driven by Luallen Kettner, 73, of Chaska, the State Patrol said.

She was not hurt.

Thirty-one MnDOT employees have been killed in work zones since 1960, Barnard said.

The accident remains under investigation.

TIM HARLOW and HERON MARQUEZ ESTRADA

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