Minnesota Highway 169 Task Force lowers the fatal crashes

Virginia, Minn. (Northern News now) – Last year people die on the streets of Minnesota with an increase in deaths, but a nationwide initiative hopes to reduce these figures.

According to the Minnesota Ministry of Transport, the deaths on streets in 2024 stood up. Members of an ITasca County Task Force work on the Highway 169 on zero death, which was considered one of the more deadlier motorway routes in the state.

“It is a trauma that you just don't just forget,” said the deputy head of chief Chris Peterson in the office of the district of ITosca.

Since 2019, the Highway 169 from Grand Rapids to Keewatin in the ITASCA district has recorded 10 fatal wrecks.

“Statistically speaking, it is much higher than the state average,” said Shane, coordinator of ITasca County compared to zero death.

The problem was part of the establishment of a task force last spring to reduce the number of deaths in the region. The Task Force spoke on Thursday in Virginia at a conference of “Tough Zero Deaths”.

Unrest said there was not a single reason why Highway is 169 fatal.

“There is a mix,” said problem. “It would be nice and easy if it were one thing, but it is really a combination of speed, impairment, these intersections.”

The problems of Taconites, the Trout Lake Road and several other other crossings include problems.

The Sheriff's office of Ittasca County joined the Task Force in June last year to increase the patrol.

“There were thousands of traffic stops,” said Peterson. “They don't all lead to an official quote, but they all lead to a kind of public awareness that a card or a brochure would be.”

The agency even received a state scholarship to pay the commissioned overtime in order to increase the enforcement of this route.

“We can do it better, and then only the seriousness of the volume of accidents that we would have had in the past five years as a result of deaths that would have brought us to the top of attention,” said Peterson. “Regardless of whether a scholarship stops, we are still invested in it.”

Since the participation of the Sheriff of the Sheriff by Ittasca County So far, Peterson has not given any fatal accidents along the Highway 169 from Grand Rapid to Keewatin.

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