6 teens rushed to hospital following Ham Lake crash
HAM LAKE, Minn. -- Six teenagers are in the hospital Friday morning after a bad crash in Ham Lake. They are all 17 years old.
The crash happened around 11 p.m. Thursday on the 16800 block of Xylite Street.
"The house shook and right away we got up," said Alesha and Paul Peterson. They knew what they heard and eventually saw right outside of their home couldn't be good news.
"The car was mangled and they opened the doors and it was just a bunch of kids and legs, just mangled," they said.
Officials said it appears the teens were speeding when the vehicle hit a tree that belongs to Crystal Baudoin.
"I heard a big boom [and] I just ran over," she said.
Scanner audio indicates that one of the teens was possibly ejected from the vehicle, and that the vehicle was on fire when first responders arrived. Some of the victims reportedly needed to be extracted from the vehicle.
The neighbors and others said they stayed up all night trying to help any way they could.
"Then they started to say it's catching on fire," Baudoin said. "' [The first responders said] it's on fire, get em' away, get em' away,' so I moved the girl over to the opposite side of the road," Baudoin said.
"We just started grabbing kids and just hauling them up the hill," the Petersons said.
"I sat with him the whole time and talk with him and told him he was going a good job," Baudoin said. "He was in a lot of pain."
Two of the teenagers were flown to the hospital, via Life Link III and North Memorial Air Care helicopters. The other four were taken by ambulance.
Zach Gray said he goes to school with two of the teens and plays hockey with another.
"It's just crazy that that can happen all in just one night," Gray said. Gray and a group of friends traveled to the scene Friday morning to see it for themselves.
"They're you're friends and you don't think it's going to happen to them but like you never know," he said.
Now all he can do is hope for the best and warn others to be safe.
"It's scary," he said. "It kind of gives you a wake up call. You gotta be smart on the roads."
Neighbors said speeding on Xylite Street Northeast is not uncommon. The Petersons said they even bought signs to put up in an effort to get people to slow down.
Passengers involved in the crash have been identified as Payton Kaufman of New Brighton; Berit Hudson of Arden Hills; Lauren Coffey of Arden Hills; Landon Pederson of Blaine; and Brendon Hammer of Andover.