Dashcam Captures Near-Miss On Snowy Crystal Roads

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Crystal Police Department just released video showing a recent close call along the highway.

The police department said that the incident was filmed by the squad car dashcam of Lt. Pete Underthun, who was stopped at an accident on Interstate 94 near County Road 81 Tuesday morning.

The video shows a semi-truck passing the stopped squad car and pulled-over vehicles on the right, along the shoulder.

The department said the video showed the lieutenant and drivers involved in the previous accident "fleeing for safety."

Underthun said the incident happened near a high speed curve, and that the semi had been fishtailing before the incident.

"That spinout and original accident would never have happened if somebody would have been driving slow enough to negotiate that curve on icy roads," Underthun said. "Secondarily, if that driver of that box truck would have been traveling at a reasonable speed, he would have been able to react to the lights and stop and move over."

This all happened just after 7 a.m.

"The truck was able to correct enough to take the shoulder and avoid my squad. We had to decide where to run to avoid being hit. As you see by the video, we are all very lucky," Underthun said. "I used to drive a box truck like this and I believe the driver chose to pass us after correcting his skid because locking the brakes would have most certainly caused him to hit the stopped vehicles."

Underthun said the driver did stop after passing the stopped vehicles, and was not cited.

Earlier Tuesday morning, the police department noted that there had been a number of crashes amid the falling snow.

Underthun said everything that happened Tuesday morning surrounding this incident was the result of people traveling too fast for the road conditions. He said drivers should slow down, and also remember to move over for stopped emergency vehicles.