Beer cans were found close to the fire truck, but the driver tested alcohol-free, as the cause of the fatal Wood Lake firetruck rollover remains under investigation

By Paul Walsh
Star Tribune

WOOD LAKE, Minn. — Investigators are now saying that alcohol was not a factor in the rollover crash of a firetruck in southwestern Minnesota that left a firefighter riding along dead.

The crash occurred on Sept. 26 in Wood Lake while the town’s fire department was participating in Lakeview High School’s annual homecoming festivities. Rescue crews found Patrick Steven Remiger, 43, trapped beneath the truck when they arrived. He died at the scene.

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The driver, Andrew Vanhecke, 37, and passenger Beaux, his 6-year-old son, were injured and soon released from the hospital, the patrol said.

The Minnesota State Patrol initially said it believed Vanhecke was under the influence of alcohol when the firetruck crashed on its way back to Wood Lake. Police in nearby Marshall, after getting court permission, collected a sample of Vanhecke’s blood while he was being treated for his injuries at a hospital in that city.

Patrol Sgt. Troy Christianson said Monday that “we received the blood results on Friday, [and] no alcohol was detected.”

Christianson declined to say whether Vanhecke was under the influence of a drug at the time of the crash. He did not address whether distracted driving might have played a role.

Vanhecke was driving the firetruck north on 490th Street just north of Cottonwood “when it veered into the [right] shoulder, struck a mailbox, overcorrected and rolled several times” before landing in a ditch, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Yellow Medicine County District Court. Several 12-ounce cans of beer “were located close to the firetruck,” the affidavit noted.

No one in the truck had on restraint devices, according to the patrol.

Part of the festivities included Lakeview’s cross-country team delivering the homecoming game ball on a 10-mile run to the high school from Wood Lake. Two of Remiger’s children are cross-country runners and are coached by their mother, Becky Remiger.

Remiger was a 20-year member of the volunteer Fire Department and also ran a dairy farm, according to his obituary.

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