A two-vehicle crash near Wise Road and Sugarberry Creek in Brainerd left one driver dead and the other driver injured.
The head-on collision occurred at about 4:20 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in Crow Wing County. Neither vehicle had passengers, according to Crow Wing County Sheriff's Sgt. DJ Downie.
"One driver was dead on arrival or dead at the scene, and another driver was treated for injuries, taken to the hospital," Downie said.
The deceased driver of the Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck was a 61-year-old man from Brainerd, but authorities have not released the names of those involved in the fatality.
"We are still investigating. ... The (Minnesota) State Patrol is doing the reconstruction of it," Downie said of the crash. "And we also were able to document the scene with a UAV team-unmanned aerial vehicle-basically a drone."
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A 48-year-old Motley man was the driver of the other vehicle, which advertised Ramstad Technologies of Annandale on its side.
"It was a work-type vehicle," Downie said. "It was a white crew cab Chevrolet truck pulling a trailer. A business owned it."
The surviving driver was treated at Essentia Health-St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd for minor injuries and was released.
"We do know there was some medical history with the deceased, so it's unknown if it was medically related at this time," Downie said Thursday.
The Brainerd man's body was taken to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.
"The next of kin-we have made notifications, but we don't know that everybody has been notified yet, so a name won't be released yet," Downie said.
First-responders from the Brainerd Fire Department, the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office, the Brainerd Police Department, the Baxter Police Department, the Minnesota State Patrol and North Memorial Ambulance were at the scene.
"We shut down Wise Road from Beaver Dam Road ... to where Riverside Drive comes out of Wise, so traffic was rerouted from approximately 4:30 until 6:30, or about two hours," Downie said.
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Three people were killed last year in Crow Wing County crashes, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Downie said of traffic crashes near Wise Road and Sugarberry Creek: "I wouldn't say there's a lot, and I wouldn't say there's a little ... but it's usually not this severe."
