Wrong-way driver slams into pole, shears tree, dies
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - A man has died after speeding the wrong way down a one way on University Avenue S.E., slamming into a light pole and shearing a tree early Thursday morning.
According to Minneapolis police:
Officers responded to University and 30th avenues S.E. at about 1:21 a.m. and found a man, believed to be the driver, lying on the sidewalk “in very critical condition.” The vehicle was about a block away with no one inside, the driver’s door sheared off.
“Preliminary investigation yields that the vehicle was being operated at a high rate of speed, traveling the wrong direction in a one-way of University Avenue SE. The vehicle hit a curb and a light pole at SE 30th Avenue where the driver was ejected. The car continued unoccupied along the sidewalk, shearing a tree off and striking a gas meter where it came to rest along a building,” police said in a news release.
The man was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he later died.
The Minneapolis Police Department and Minnesota State Patrol are investigating and the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office will release his identity and official cause of death.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Minneapolis Police Department at 612-692-TIPS (8477).