An SUV driver from southwestern Minnesota said he fell asleep just before he ran a red light Sunday morning in Minnetonka, struck a State Patrol squad car and injured the trooper. This is the second time in three days that a patrol squad car has been involved in a collision.
The latest crash occurred shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday in Minnetonka and left the trooper hospitalized with minor injuries, the State Patrol said.
An SUV driven by Timothy C. Radloff, 28, of Lynd, Minn., was northbound on Shady Oak Road just north of Hwy. 62, when he ran a red light and hit the squad car as it was making a left-hand turn from Red Circle Drive onto southbound Shady Oak, according to the patrol.
Radloff said that he fell asleep in the moments leading up to the crash, the patrol added.
The trooper, Michael M. Cleveland, 31, of Bloomington, was taken to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina for medical treatment. Radloff was not hurt.
Alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the crash, the patrol said.
On Friday, an elderly couple were killed in their hometown of Cannon Falls when their car was broadsided by a State Patrol trooper who was heading to an injury crash. Driver Norman Scott, 78, and his wife Geneva Scott, 79, died in the collision. The trooper, Scott Reps, 48, of Rochester, suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized in Rochester.
The crash occurred as Reps was responding to a collision between a deer and a motorcycle that had injured the rider. He was heading south on 65th Avenue when he got word of the crash near County Road 24, just south of the Cannon Falls town center. Witnesses described hearing sirens and seeing the patrol car's lights. The couple pulled out of a parking lot and was hit on the driver's side, the patrol said.
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