A 22-year-old St. Cloud man died after being found in a ditch along Highway 27 in Todd County this week. His own friends had been searching the area for him before he was found. Henry Aramis Lora Polanco was discovered dead in the ditch on Tuesday evening, in a single-vehicle wreck that investigators say did not involve any other cars.
Trooper Encounters Searchers
A Minnesota State Patrol trooper was traveling east on Highway 27 in Bruce Township at about 6:43 p.m. Tuesday when the trooper came across a vehicle parked on the shoulder, KNSI reported. People outside the vehicle told the trooper they were searching the ditch for a missing friend.
The missing friend was Polanco, who was found dead in the ditch along Highway 27. The State Patrol later identified him as the 22-year-old St. Cloud man, KNSI reported.
What Investigators Reported
Investigators determined that no other vehicles were involved in the crash. The roads were dry, and it was not known whether Polanco was wearing a helmet, according to KNSI.
The Todd County Sheriff's Office and the Long Prairie Police Department both assisted at the scene alongside the State Patrol, according to KNSI. In a separate incident on that same stretch east of Long Prairie, three Little Falls men suffered non-life-threatening injuries when their vehicle rolled into a ditch after the driver swerved to avoid a deer, according to brainerddispatch.com.
The Brainerd Dispatch report also detailed other rural Minnesota crashes, including the death of an 83-year-old Aitkin man whose SUV left Highway 47 and struck a tree in Spencer Township, and a 75-year-old Marble Rock, Iowa, man who was injured when his motorcycle was rear-ended on Highway 10 south of Royalton.
What Regional Motorcycle Data Show
A KTTC-TV report dated 10.23.24, reproduced in the Southeast Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths annual report, said the Minnesota State Patrol reported 71 motorcycle accidents in Southeast Minnesota that year, compared with 62 the previous year. Those figures cover motorcycle accidents in Southeast Minnesota, not fatal crashes statewide, and do not establish a statewide fatal-crash total or trend.
