The victim was in front of his vehicle checking front front-end damage when the collision occurred.
A man who’d gotten out of his pickup truck to check its front end after hitting a deer was killed when another driver slammed into the back of his stopped vehicle.
Donald Edward Zwilling, 56, had been northbound on County Road 45 in Lynden Township around 6:30 a.m. Monday, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said, but stopped near 6th Avenue after a suspected deer crash.
The Clearwater man got out of his Ford F150 and went to assess any damage to the front end.
While Zwilling was still in front of his pickup, a Kimball man traveling northbound in a Chevrolet 1500 pickup on the two-lane road approached the scene. That 37-year-old man’s Chevy crashed into the back of Zwilling’s pickup, pushing the vehicle over Zwilling and trapping him underneath, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Chevy, after impacting the Ford, continued straight then rolled, ultimately coming to a rest on the driver’s side.The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said one its deputies came across the wreck shortly after the crash occurred. They found Zwilling beneath the Ford, and he died at the scene. The Chevy driver had minor injuries, but both vehicles had extensive damage, the sheriff’s office said.The cause of the crash is unclear at this time. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said impairment doesn’t appear to be a factor, and noted fog in the area at the time of the collision. The Minnesota State Patrol will be doing a crash reconstruction report as part of the investigation.