Carnage and grief, again

ST. JAMES, MINN -- Four young men and a young woman set off early Saturday to celebrate a birthday, a newborn daughter and a chance at a new life.

But their celebration ended like too many others have this year on Minnesota's rural roads -- with the men lying dead in a crumpled vehicle that also contained an open bottle of alcohol, the woman critically injured and families, friends and rescuers somber and grieving.

The crash, yet another in a series of horrific multiple-death accidents this year involving young Minnesotans, brought a discouraged reaction Sunday from Lt. Eric Roeske, of the Minnesota State Patrol, who has been front and center in renewed efforts this year to persuade young people to drive more safely.

"It's hard to get inside the head of each individual who make those choices or engage in risky behavior," Roeske said. "They're not planning on something bad happening to them. Or, they've heard it happened somewhere nearby and assume it can't happen again."

The driver, Terrance John Tierney, 24, of Fairmont, Minn., whose first conviction for an alcohol-related offense at age 16 was followed by a string of arrests and a prison term, thought he finally was putting his life together, the mother of his month-old daughter said Sunday.

"He'd explained his whole past -- being in foster care and in prison [in St. Cloud] three years ago for breaking into the hog barns where he was fired," said Brittni Gleason, 20, of Fairmont. "Our daughter, Tessa, was born a month ago yesterday and meant the world to him. Now I get to tell her someday that her dad got killed in an accident."

Tierney, along with Joshua Robert Adams, 24; Luis Alberto Martinez Jr., 21, and Jose Teodor Cardoza, 23, all of St. James, died just before 6 a.m. Saturday when their car, westbound on gravel 180th Street, ran into a semitrailer truck at the intersection with paved 130th Avenue, just north of the tiny southern Minnesota community of Welcome.

None of the five young people was wearing a seat belt.

"It's nothing new as far as that age group, engaging in that kind of behavior and getting those kind of results," the patrol's Roeske said of the news that the victims were not wearing seat belts. "Everybody doesn't wear one for different reasons. And then you get young people drinking ..."

The truck driver, Thomas Schwarz, 50, of Vernon Center, Minn., survived. He was wearing a seat belt and had to be cut loose from the vehicle's cab, said Welcome Fire Chief Jay Mulso.

"It wasn't just hard to get to him," Mulso said. "It was hard to see him."

Attempts to reach Schwarz for comment Sunday were not successful.

Russell Helget, a friend of the victims, said Tierney, who was unemployed, had spent Thursday and Friday at Helget's home in Butterfield, Minn. Friday was Adams' birthday, and Helget and Tierney had talked about going out to celebrate, but Helget declined.

Adams' father, Julio Rodriguez, 45, of St. James, said that he hadn't seen his son on his birthday. Adams' mother lives in a nearby trailer park. Friends described Adams as a loner.

Martinez, who talked often about going to college, had finished his night shift at a packing plant at 1 a.m. Saturday, said friend Nidia Zelaya.

Martinez had moved out of his family's St. James home just days before, said his sister, Linda Martinez, 18.

Cardoza, their cousin, had also lived with the family. "I guess they were celebrating," Linda Martinez said.

"He was the type of guy who would do whatever for anyone," said friend Tyler Goossen, 19, of St. James. Another friend, Sean Julian, 19, said that after he left college in Wyoming and returned to Minnesota, Tierney took him in for three months.

"I think he had straightened everything out," Julian said of Tierney's past problems.

Tierney and Gleason met 18 months ago. When he instantly fell in love with her then-infant son, Logan, she knew she "found the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with," she said Sunday.

Goossen said Tierney "liked to drink on occasion." But others had thought that the four friends might hold off any celebration until Saturday night because Saturday was the birthday of Adams' young cousin.

On Sunday, friends were talking about memorials, not parties. A cross and flowers stood at the rural site of the accident, and Adams' dad said there were plans to bring a bigger cross to the site.

A message unheeded

Roeske said Sunday that he wonders if the dangers of driving drunk and without seat belts will ever sink in with young people.

Minnesota has seen several other high-profile multiple-death accidents this year. The most deadly occurred in April, when six young people were killed in a head-on crash in Cambridge. One of the drivers, Josh Netzel, 24, of Sandstone, had a blood-alcohol level of about 0.24 percent. He was killed, along with his passenger. Also killed were four teens in the other vehicle.

"When I was a junior in high school, we lost a classmate who didn't wear a seat belt," said Goossen as he pulled away from a gas station in St. James.

As he left, a car with four young people pulled in. All said they knew the victims. None was wearing a seat belt.