Speed, alcohol suspected factors when teen driver hit parked machinery in Waconia, killing passenger

Officials said Monday that speeding and alcohol use are suspected factors in the death of a 16-year-old car passenger who was killed when a teenage driver struck construction machinery parked on the side of the road in Waconia, officials said.

The crash occurred about 4:20 a.m. Saturday on Oak Avenue near Goldfinch Drive, the Carver County Sheriff's Office said.

Anthony M. Lewin, 16, of Waconia, died, and 16-year-old Isaiah K. Whitted, also of Waconia, was taken by emergency medical responders to HCMC for treatment of serious injuries.

Whitted was heading north on Oak and hit a pay loader, which was parked on the right side of the road and "marked with a traffic cone," read a statement from Sheriff Jason Kamerud.

The Sheriff said that the spot where the crash occurred "is a poorly lit area," and the company responsible for the pay loader has it "marked much better now."

The equipment was being used for road construction, said Tim Mueller, an executive with the Hamburg-based Mueller and Sons construction company.

Mueller said the pay loader belongs to a subcontractor, Northdale Construction of Albertville. A message was left with Northdale's president, Phil Lesnar, seeking details about why the pay loader was parked in that spot and marked with a single cone.

The sheriff also said preliminary investigations found that the car "was going well in excess of the posted speed limit" of 30 miles per hour on what he described as a straight and largely flat stretch of road.

"You're not likely to have a fatality" under these circumstances if the car is staying within the speed limit, he said.