DELANO, Minn. - A busy state highway was shut down Thursday morning following a head-on crash west of the metro.
Authorities say it happened on Highway 12 near the junction with Hitsman Lane, approximately 2 miles east of Delano, West Hennepin Public Safety reported on its Facebook page that the heavily-traveled highway will be closed for an undetermined amount of time while the crash is cleaned up and reconstructed.
A sergeant on scene told KARE 11's Melissa Colorado that both drivers involved in the head-on crash suffered non-life threatening injuries. One driver was airlifted from the scene with chest injuries, while the other was taken to a hospital via ambulance with a seriously broken arm. A family inside of a third vehicle that became involved in the crash was shaken, but uninjured.
Morning rush hour traffic was rerouted while the crash is cleaned up and reconstructed. The highway was reopened to traffic around 8 a.m.
The incident happened less than a mile away from where construction crews are adding a temporary center turn lane to avoid collisions.
Highway 12 has become a focal point for law enforcement, state lawmakers and residents of the west metro due to the high number of crashes and fatalities that have taken place on the stretch that runs from Wayzata through Delano. Money was set aside by lawmakers in the 2016 session to make Highway 12 more safe. However, that funding became caught up in the transportation bill that was not passed when legislators ran out of time.
