An 89-year-old Parkers Prairie man is fighting for his life after his car collided head-on with a pickup truck on State Highway 29, in a crash that state troopers say left him without a seat belt at the moment of impact. Ronny Laney was driving south when his vehicle struck a northbound pickup, according to investigators, and he was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The crash occurred in Otter Tail County near Parkers Prairie, according to The Mighty 790 KFGO. Laney was taken to Douglas County Hospital, while the pickup's driver, 52-year-old Daniel Nolan of Bagley, Minnesota, was not injured. Parkers Prairie police, fire and EMS personnel assisted the Minnesota State Patrol at the scene, per the same report.
Troopers say Laney was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision, a detail that carries extra weight this week. Minnesota operates under a primary seat belt law, meaning officers can stop and ticket unbelted drivers or passengers outright, under Minnesota law. Drivers and passengers must wear seat belts.
Crash Lands in the Middle of a Statewide Enforcement Push
The collision happened during the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's statewide extra enforcement campaign targeting seat belt use and child passenger safety, an effort that ran from September 20 through Saturday and drew participation from nearly 300 law enforcement agencies across the state, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. The campaign was funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and administered by DPS.
The stakes behind that campaign are stark. The department recorded a 95.2% statewide seat belt compliance rate in 2025, yet 68 of the 363 people killed on Minnesota roads that year were not wearing seat belts — nearly one in five deaths on Minnesota roads. State safety officials classify unbelted driving as one of the primary preventable causes of highway deaths.
Those numbers arrive against a broader backdrop of improving highway safety. Minnesota recorded 363 total traffic deaths in 2025, a significant drop from 475 in 2024 and the state's lowest annual fatality count since 2019, per preliminary state figures.
Highway 29 Corridor Has Seen Recent Trouble
Friday's crash is not the only serious collision to hit this stretch of road this year. Two months earlier, on July 12, a two-vehicle crash at the intersection of State Highway 29 and Elm Street in Parkers Prairie sent four people to the hospital, including a local driver also transported to Alomere Health, as reported by KFGO. Both crashes occurred on Highway 29 near Parkers Prairie.
Laney was taken to what is now known as Alomere Health, the Alexandria facility that was rebranded from Douglas County Hospital in 2018.
Age and Physical Fragility Raise the Stakes
Laney's age adds another layer to the incident's severity.
Age-related changes can affect driving abilities and injury recovery.
The precise cause of Friday's collision — whether it involved a lane violation, a failure to yield, or another factor — has not been detailed publicly.
