PIERCE COUNTY Accident Reports

Deputies responded at 11:36 a.m. Nov. 5 to a onevehicle crash on 240th Street just south of 100th Avenue in the town of Maiden Rock. A 2998 Mazda B25, driven by Landin Lee Lehrke, 17, Spring Valley, was traveling south on 240th Street. He fishtailed, spun out at 100th Avenue and continued south about 800 feet where he swerved to miss a deer, crossed the center line and entered the northbound ditch where the vehicle overturned. The vehicle rolled about three-quarters of the way over and stopped on the driver’s side. The front passenger side tire was resting on a telephone pole. Lehrke wore a seat belt and reported no injuries. A passenger, Owen Richard Garay, 16, Maiden Rock, wrote a seat belt and also reported no injuries. The vehicle was towed due to disabling damage. Lehrke was cited for failure to keep vehicle under control.

Officers responded to a deer vs. motorcycle crash at 3:36 p.m. Nov. 6 on Highway 35 about a quartermile east of 945th Street in the town of Diamond Bluff. A 2015 Harley Davidson Street Glider, operated by Michael Guy Lenz, 67, Cottage Grove, Minn., was traveling northbound on Highway 35 when a deer jumped in front of the motorcycle. The driver was unable to miss the deer and struck it before he entered the ditch on the north side of the road. Lenz was thrown from the motorcycle. Lenz, who wore a halfhelmet, gloves, boots, jacket and long pants, was transported to a Minnesota hospital by ambulance with possible injuries. The Harley was towed due to disabling damage.

Police responded to a truck vs. train crash at 12:33 p.m. Nov. 10 on 290th Avenue just west of 1005th Street in the town of Diamond Bluff. A 2019 Chevrolet G3500, operated by Saquan Alonge Mitchell, 25, St. Paul, was illegally parked on an excess right of way leading to the railroad tracks just off 1005th Street. Mitchell said his GPS told him to turn that way. The excess was not a road or railroad track crossing. Mitchell, a delivery driver, became stuck on the tracks. A train traveling northbound was unable to stop and struck the van, which overturned and came to rest on the north side of the tracks. Mitchell wore a seat belt and reported no injuries. Two people on the railway train wore seat belts and reported no injuries: Casey Wayne White, 38, De Soto, and Kelby Robert Oswald, 29, Onalaska. The train had functional damage, while the van had disabling damage.

A FedEx delivery truck was struck by a train in Diamond Bluff Wednesday, Nov. 10. The truck driver told police that his truck navigation system took him to the location of the former train crossing in Diamond Bluff. The vehicle was stuck on the railroad tracks when it was hit by a train. Photo courtesy of Fred Haverlandt.