2 Killed, Multiple Injured In Wrong Way Crash Near MSP Airport
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Two family members are dead after a head-on collision near MSP Airport Friday night.
Dawn Chiodo, 51, of Bloomington and Dylan Bailey, 24, of Bloomington were both killed in the crash that happened around 8:30 p.m. They were two of five people in a Jeep Cherokee traveling west on Highway 5 on the ramp to Interstate 494 when it collided head-on with a Chevrolet Malibu going the wrong way.
"We ran over some rubble in the street and Scott yells, 'Stop the car,'" said Tony Navarro.
Navarro and his friend, Scott Ferrozzo, were on their way to a comedy show at Mall of America. They arrived at the scene shortly after the crash and saw the Jeep, on fire, with the driver's side smashed.
The two men say an MSP Airport officer put out the fire. Ferrozzo then pulled open the broken rear passenger door, and saw two women in the back seat.
"I said, 'You just hang tight there you just don't move,'" Ferrozzo said.
He pulled the woman closest to him out. The vehicle, which had been coming from the direction of the airport, was filled with luggage.
"I was able to move the luggage and I saw the baby behind," Ferrozzo said.
The men say an officer had to break the rear window to get to the 2-year-old boy, as the back of the Jeep was pushed against the guard rail. He then handed the child to Navarro, before the boy was given CPR.
"It's sad, because that was a little boy," Navarro, who also has a son, said.
The men then helped pull the second woman out of the back seat, before getting the front passenger, a woman, out as more help arrived.
Navarro, a former Maplewood firefighter, had to stop at a bar to wash blood off his hands. The two friends would later find out Chiodo, the driver, and Bailey, who they helped pull out, died.
"Live your life like you're going to die tomorrow but plan it like you're going to live forever," Ferrozzo said.
The Minnesota State Patrol says all of the adults involved in the crash were wearing their seat belts and alcohol was not a factor. It's unknown if the 2-year-old boy, Payton Bailey, was buckled in.
The Jeep's other passengers — 50-year-old Jennifer Nord and 18-year-old Olivia Nord suffered serious injuries. The Nords are both in critical condition, but Bailey's condition has not been released.
The driver who was going the wrong way, 34-year-old Patrick Hayes, is in critical condition.
