A 28-year-old man was killed and his 2-year-old son critically injured in a head-on crash in a construction zone in west-central Minnesota early Tuesday, the State Patrol said.
The driver was identified by friends and family members on social media as Michael Blume, of Elrosa, Minn. According to the patrol, Blume was heading south on Hwy. 71 near 320th Street just north of the small town at 2:38 a.m. when his 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo crossed the centerline in a construction zone and collided with a northbound semitrailer truck.
Blume was pronounced dead at the scene. His son, identified by the patrol as Jeremiah Blume, was seriously injured and airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
"Heaven gained a young loving dad, a brother, and someone's son early this morning," Katrina Wolbaum, the boy's mother and Michael Blume's girlfriend, posted on Facebook. "You're forever in my heart and forever in our little boy!"
The semi driver, Carlos Sandoval, 44, of Grand Island, Neb., was taken to a hospital in Sauk Centre, Minn., with noncritical injuries. A passenger in the semitrailer truck, identified as his 14-year-old son, Angel Sandoval, was also taken to the hospital with noncritical injuries, the patrol said.
Road conditions were dry at the time of the crash. Alcohol did not appear to be a factor, the patrol said. It continues to investigate.
