Pickup Carrying 9 Teens Totaled In Wright County Rollover Crash
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Authorities in Wright County say 9 teenagers are lucky to be alive after they were involved in a rollover crash in a pickup truck.
It happened just after 10:00 p.m. Sunday in French Lake Township, north of Cokato. Authorities say two boys were in the cab and seven others were in the bed when the truck went off the road and crashed into a soybean field.
"Crazy to look at. Someone was looking out for them," Alex Koivisto said. His nephew Blayne was the driver.
The soybean field near County Road 35 shows where the accident happened, while the Wright County impound lot shows the damage that was done.
Friends say 16-year-old Blayne Koivisto was driving a 1998 Chevy S-10 pickup with eight other teenagers on board. They say the boys, ranging in age from 15 to 17, had just left a church function and Koivisto was giving them a ride home when his truck went off the road.
"Right away I heard about it," Alex Koivisto said. "I was terrified, you know. Hopefully everyone's fine."
Tracks show the path the truck took through the ditch. It missed a post by less than a foot. From there, the truck went over the road and into the field.
Authorities say the pickup rolled and seven teenagers were thrown from the bed of the truck during the crash. Everyone was rushed to the hospital, but all nine boys are expected to be okay.
Alex Koivisto says his nephew has a concussion, but he hopes he'll be sent home from the hospital on Tuesday.
"I bet he won't have any more passengers in the back," he said. "And everyone else won't be jumping in the back for a long time."
The State Patrol said nothing prohibits you from having multiple passengers in the back of your pickup truck if all the seat belts are being used in the cab.