Two people were killed Saturday night in a two-vehicle crash in Vermillion Township, bringing the toll of those who have died of injuries suffered in recent state crashes to eight.
According to the Dakota County Sheriff's Office, a pickup driven by Jon Fontaine, 36, of Farmington, failed to slow down at a stop sign on Goodwin Avenue at 190th Street E. just after 8:30 p.m. Saturday, striking an SUV westbound on 190th.
The SUV rolled and both vehicles came to rest in a ditch. Fontaine was killed, as was Jared Lazer, 34, of Rosemount, a passenger in the SUV.
Fontaine's passenger, his 12-year-old son, as well as the SUV's driver, Jillayne Lazer, 33, who is Jared's wife, and their three children were all hospitalized with noncritical injuries.
On Sunday, a 55-year-old Ham Lake man was identified as the motorcyclist fatally injured Saturday in a Brooklyn Center crash. Just before midnight Friday, Robert S. Schmidt was riding north on Hwy. 100, approaching the entrance to eastbound Interstate 694, when vehicles came up behind him, according to the State Patrol. When Schmidt tried to change lanes, he overcorrected and struck a concrete barrier. He was taken to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, where he died early Saturday. His passenger, Toni Renee Schmidt, 33, also of Ham Lake, suffered noncritical injuries.
A Robbinsdale man was killed about 2 a.m. Saturday when he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed on a freeway exit ramp from westbound Interstate 494 to northbound Hwy. 100 in Bloomington. Cory Ray Jones, 48, died at the scene.
Just before 6 p.m. Friday, an off-duty Blaine police officer and his wife, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, were killed when their motorcycle collided head-on with a pickup truck in the 21100 block of Twin Lakes Road in Elk River. Steve and Marilyn "Susie" Nanney, both 51, of Ham Lake, died at the scene. The truck driver, a 17-year-old Elk River resident, suffered minor injuries.
Three-vehicle crash
In yet another fatal crash over the weekend, Robert Stoll, 81, of McGregor, was killed just after 5:30 p.m. Saturday in a three-vehicle crash in Crow Wing County. Stoll was driving a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado that was rear-ended by another pickup and pushed into a van on Hwy. 169 south of Garrison. His passenger, Lillian H. Abrahamson, 84, of Cloquet, was not hurt.
