A Minnetonka man died when his car and a police squad car with blaring sirens and flashing lights collided at a Minnetonka intersection, renewing concern about the safety of a busy four-way stop.
Sean Kian, 52, was about a half-mile south of his home at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when his car collided with a squad car responding to an emergency. The State Patrol said Wednesday that Kian, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, was thrown from his 1988 BMW and died at the scene.
It's the fourth accident at the intersection of Excelsior Boulevard and Woodland Road in the past three years, according to Minnetonka police. But Wayne Heideman said that in two decades living at the corner, it's the worst accident he and his wife have seen.
"We have the most dangerous spot in the whole city," he said.
Kian was returning from Richfield after dinner with an aunt, a drive he had made several times, said his cousin, Gholam Kian of Minneapolis. Kian, a software engineer who emigrated from Iran in the early 1980s and graduated from the University of Minnesota, was "a fine man, very caring," his cousin said. "He spent a lot of time with my kids."
The officer, Daniel P. Aschenbrener, 28, who was wearing a seat belt, was briefly hospitalized.
Heideman and his wife say motorists often go through red lights and exceed the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit on Woodland Road and 40 mph limit on Excelsior.
"The intersection has been bad a long time," Mary Heideman said of other crashes, including fatal accidents. But "we've never had something like this."