Two drivers crossed into oncoming traffic together on a Twin Cities highway late at night while racing with a third vehicle and crashed, leaving one motorist dead and his passenger near death, according to court records.
The incident involving two crash scenes near each other occurred about 11:15 p.m. Saturday in Eagan on Hwy. 149 near Hwy. 55, the State Patrol said.
The vehicles that crashed, a Jeep and a Honda sedan, were heading south on Hwy. 149 and “both ... crossed into the northbound lanes,” a patrol statement read. The SUV hit a light pole, while the sedan landed in a ditch, the statement continued.
The driver who hit the light pole died and was identified by the patrol as Reed Robert Schultz, 19, of Savage. His passenger, 18-year-old Finnian Thomas Cronin of Edina, was last reported to be in critical condition at Regions Hospital.
Jordan John Wieland, 20, of White Bear Lake was driving the Honda that went into the ditch. The patrol said Wieland was hospitalized with noncritical injuries. The patrol said it suspects he was under the influence of alcohol at the time.
In a search warrant affidavit filed in law enforcement’s pursuit of permission to collect Wieland’s medical records, the patrol said:
Traffic videos and witness accounts revealed that three drivers were traveling at “speeds over 100 mph in the 45 zone, when the Jeep and the Honda lose control and go over the median into the [northbound] lanes. The Jeep strikes the semaphore pole and gets cut in half. The Honda [ends up] in the ditch.”
The filing said the third vehicle, a Dodge Durango, stopped without crashing.
