Lakeville Relatively Unscathed From 40 Hour, 15 Inch Holiday Snowstorm

Forty hours of snowfall last weekend left more than 15 inches of snow blowing around in strong winds from Saturday through Monday, leaving deep snowdrifts across the City and creating “whiteout” and blizzard-like conditions for drivers.

The good thing about this snowstorm, which was the fifth major snowstorm of this season, was that it hit over the weekend and the majority of people had the good sense to stay home and not venture out. It also helped that Monday was a holiday and rush hour traffic was significantly lighter than usual.

Our officers still responded to numerous reports of vehicles that slid off the roadway or just got stuck in the snowdrifts on the roadway as well as a number of property damage crashes. At one point on Monday night, there were seven crashes reported within a short period of time. Fortunately, none of the traffic crashes during the snowstorm resulted in serious injuries to anyone.

Storm related calls also included a few reports of injuries from falling on the slippery snow and ice covered surfaces, but those also did not result in anyone being seriously injured.

Officers switched over from patrol squads to 4-wheel-drive trucks during the storm and Sergeant Tim Knutson noted in his daily patrol shift report the blowing snow and deteriorating roadway conditions left many of the roadways nearly impassible. Knutson concluded his report with a comment that summarized the entire weekend from the patrol officers’ perspective, “Thank goodness for 4-wheel-drive vehicles.”

By the numbers:

Activity for the week of Feb. 18 through Feb. 25:

Lakeville Police responded to 18 traffic crashes, 29 alarms, 23 animal calls, 21 medical emergencies, 21 thefts, and 165 traffic stops.

New Officer Takes the Oath:

Officer Thomas Danielson was administered the Oath of Office as our newest police officer by Mayor Mark Bellows at the beginning of the last Lakeville City Council meeting.

Danielson, who holds a degree in Criminology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and was an officer with the Prairie Island Indian Community Police Department before being hired in Lakeville. Danielson is married and lives with his family in Lakeville. Danielson’s position is a replacement position that has been vacant since the tragic death of Sergeant Brigham Strole in September of last year.

Tangled Shoelaces Leads to Crash:

Police officers on patrol hear a lot of different explanations from drivers about what factors may have caused a particular crash to occur, but Sergeant Bill Gerl reported one this week that I had never heard before.

He said that a driver reported that the reason that her car drifted over the centerline causing a crash was due to her shoe laces getting tangled up in between the clutch, the brake and accelerator pedals of the vehicle as she was driving down the roadway. When the driver bent down to free her shoelaces from the pedals, her attention was drawn away from the roadway to the area of the pedals.

Her car drifted across the lane and crossed the centerline, striking a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. The vehicle occupants were checked for injuries but declined medical transport and the vehicles were towed from the location.

Dumb criminal of the week:

Officers Thor Howe and Jeremy Lerfald responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle in the driveway of a rental residence from the rental property manager. The property manager indicated that he did not know whom the vehicle belonged to and that no one had permission to be in the residence.

The officers walked around to the side of the residence and found that the service door to the garage had been kicked in. The officers were let into the residence by the rental property manager and found two individuals sleeping on the floor of the living room.

The subjects told the officers that they had permission from the former renter who used to live at the house but moved out a few months ago. The two were arrested for trespassing and criminal damage to property and issued citations and released.