397 people were killed in traffic in Minnesota last year. The carnage hums along in the background, generating only passing media coverage and very little attention in the political sphere. The deaths do not spark outrage on social media. They are treated as private tragedies.
Often a news article will describe the crash, mention the one or two deaths and then close with, “The Minnesota State Patrol is investigating.” For those who did not personally know the decedents, that’s the end of it.
Even so, some of these incidents stand out a bit. Whether due to the pointlessness and predictability of the deaths, the outrageousness of the driver’s behavior, or the scale of the carnage, some stories earn more than just a paragraph or two.
Just in the past year, the following stories rose above the usual carnage and caught my attention:
Woman kills herself, her infant son, and another driver while trying to overtake another car. According to the article, “Kraft has a variety of traffic-related offenses in Minnesota, according to state records. She has been convicted three times for driving after her license was revoked, twice for driving without insurance, twice for speeding, once for drunken driving and once for not wearing a seat belt. Her license was valid at the time of this crash, a state Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said Monday.”
Teenage driver allegedly is using Snapchat when her SUV drifts over the fog line at 60 miles per hour and kills a cyclist.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-accused-of-using-snapchat-just-before-killing-cyclist/
Driver kills himself (but fortunately not his passenger) when he speeds and goes airborne over an interstate guardrail and causes a fiery wreck after plunging 16 feet.
SUV driver hits and kills a cyclist while speeding and driving erratically. The driver still has not been caught and has not turned himself or herself in.
A man in a Ford F-350 Superduty fails to slow and physically drives over a Camaro, killing the driver of the Camaro.
https://patch.com/minnesota/richfield/pickup-drives-over-camaro-kills-bloomington-man-msp
A woman kills a Highway Patrol officer while texting and high on cocaine. Her license had already been revoked because she was deemed “inimical to public safety.”
http://www.twincities.com/2017/09/11/wayzata-police-officer-funeral-highway-12/
Man with a history of driving offenses gets extremely drunk, crashes the car, and leaves his dying girlfriend in the car while he runs away. He did go back to attempt to retrieve his phone from the wreck before fleeing. The man had been convicted that same year for a hit-and-run.
I don’t know what to say. I have no new ideas or insights. And these are just the stories that I notice. The other ~400 deaths, with no provocative details, are basically forgotten about.
pseudoisaac 