A motorcyclist died Monday afternoon after a pickup truck turned left directly into his path at a rural Benton County intersection where an upward slope in the roadway blocked the driver's view. Russell Hohmann, riding a 2004 Harley-Davidson northbound on 5th Avenue NW, was pronounced dead at the scene despite life-saving efforts. The crash happened around 4:15 p.m. Monday at the intersection of 5th Avenue NW and 160th Street Northwest in Langola Township.
According to the WJON report on the crash, Corey Popp was driving a Ram 2500 pickup southbound on 5th Avenue and planned to turn left onto 160th Street NW when the collision occurred. The Benton County Sheriff's Office reported that Popp did not see Hohmann approaching because of an upward slope in the roadway that obscured his view of oncoming traffic. Popp, who is from Rice, was not injured. Investigators say alcohol was not a factor in the crash, and the Minnesota State Patrol is assisting the sheriff's office with reconstructing the scene as the investigation continues.
A Second Fatal Turn on the Same Road in Weeks
Monday's crash marked the second motorcycle death along 160th Street within three weeks. On July 27, a 17-year-old motorcyclist died at 15th Avenue NE after a farm tractor turned left into his path, according to KNSI. The same station's coverage of Monday's crash noted that both incidents involved a vehicle turning left across the path of an oncoming motorcyclist, a pattern that traffic investigators along this stretch of township road are now watching closely.
Minnesota law places a clear duty on drivers making that kind of turn. Under Minnesota Statute § 169.20, Subd. 2, a driver turning left within an intersection must yield the right-of-way to any oncoming vehicle close enough to pose an immediate hazard. Separately, Minnesota Statute § 169.14, Subd. 3 requires drivers to reduce speed appropriately when approaching hill crests, intersections, curves, or other roadway hazards, a rule directly relevant given the sheriff's office's account of the sight-obscuring slope at the crash site.
A Family Already Marked by Tragedy
Hohmann was a resident of Rice, Minnesota, according to the Benton County Sheriff's Office. His father, Frank Andrew Hohmann, died two years earlier in May 2024 in an ATV accident, also in Rice, according to an obituary published by Emblom Brenny Funeral Service. The losses, two years apart, both involve motor vehicle wrecks touching the same small Benton County community.
Part of a Deadly Weekend and a Statewide Surge
Hohmann's death came during an especially grim stretch for central Minnesota motorcyclists. It followed two separate fatal Harley-Davidson crashes in neighboring Stearns County over the weekend of August 15 and 16, including the deaths reported in Hoodline's coverage of a Melrose rider's Highway 71 crash and a fatal crash on a curve near Richmond. That means three fatal Harley-Davidson crashes struck neighboring counties within a single three-day span.
The local toll fits into a much larger statewide trend. Statewide public safety data released in July showed Minnesota motorcycle fatalities had reached 37 by mid-July, a 50 percent increase over the 24 motorcycle deaths recorded during the same period in 2025, according to FOX 9. Left-turn failure-to-yield crashes like Monday's are a recurring theme in that surge. Guidance from the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety notes that passenger vehicle drivers turning left across rural roads frequently misjudge the speed and distance of oncoming motorcycles, making these failure-to-yield incidents a leading cause of multi-vehicle motorcycle crashes.
What Minnesota Law Requires — and Doesn't
Minnesota's helmet law is narrower than many riders assume. Under Minnesota Statute § 169.974, helmets are legally required only for riders under 18 and those holding an instructional permit, leaving the choice optional for fully licensed adult riders. Separately, Minnesota lawmakers moved last year to address a different kind of motorcycle risk: in July 2025, the state legalized lane splitting at speeds up to 25 mph and lane filtering through stopped traffic, changes aimed at improving rider visibility and cutting down on rear-end collisions.
Neither law addresses the specific hazard investigators are examining in Langola Township, where topography rather than traffic congestion appears to have played the deciding role. The Minnesota State Patrol's reconstruction of the crash scene remains ongoing, and no additional findings have been released beyond the sheriff's office's preliminary account of the blind hill and the left-turning pickup.
