A scooter rider remained hospitalized Tuesday with serious injuries after a driver struck them overnight near downtown St. Joseph and fled the scene, leaving investigators searching for a car with front-end damage and no leads on who was behind the wheel. Police have not released the victim's name or detailed the extent of their injuries beyond confirming they were serious enough to require continued hospital care.
The crash happened at the intersection of Minnesota Street East and 12th Avenue Southeast, according to KSTP, which first reported that the St. Joseph Police Department is asking for help identifying the driver who struck a person on a scooter and then drove away. Investigators believe the suspect vehicle was traveling southbound on 12th Avenue Southeast at the time of the collision and likely sustained front-end damage, possibly including a cracked windshield, though police have not released photos or a more specific description of the car.
Police have narrowed the timeframe of the crash to a roughly 40-minute window overnight during Labor Day weekend, between 11:35 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5, and 12:15 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 6, according to FOX 9. That narrowed window is meant to jog the memories of anyone who was in the area of Minnesota Street East and 12th Avenue Southeast around that time, even if they didn't witness the crash directly.
Police Appeal for Doorbell and Dash-Cam Footage
St. Joseph police have specifically asked residents and businesses near the crash site to review any doorbell, home security, or dash-camera footage captured during that overnight window, according to KNSI. Investigators have released no additional information or photos of the suspect car, leaving footage from nearby cameras as one of the few tools available to identify the vehicle. The department is also seeking any witnesses who may have seen the crash or the car in the moments before or after it happened.
Anyone with information, including footage or firsthand observations, is asked to call the St. Joseph Police Department at (320) 363-8250. The intersection sits within roughly a mile to a mile and a half of the College of Saint Benedict campus, a residential undergraduate women's college, according to the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization — a stretch of the city that sees regular pedestrian and scooter traffic. Twelfth Avenue Southeast itself functions as a key local collector road, carrying traffic from Highway 75 through residential neighborhoods toward area schools, per the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization.
What the Law Says About Fleeing an Injury Crash
Under Minnesota Statute § 169.09, leaving the scene of a crash that causes substantial bodily injury is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $3,000 fine, while fleeing a crash resulting in great bodily harm escalates to a felony carrying up to two years in prison and a $4,000 fine, according to Charles Segal Defense. Minnesota law requires drivers involved in injury collisions to stop immediately, render aid, and exchange contact information — obligations the fleeing driver in this case has not met, based on what investigators have described publicly.
If the driver is never identified, Minnesota law still offers the injured rider a path to compensation. Victims of hit-and-run crashes who cannot locate the responsible motorist can pursue personal injury claims through the uninsured motorist coverage that state law requires on all auto insurance policies, according to Knutson + Casey.
A Pattern Seen Across Minnesota Roads
The St. Joseph case fits into a broader and troubling statewide pattern. One in four pedestrians killed in Minnesota traffic crashes in 2023 was struck by a driver who then fled the scene, according to state traffic safety data cited by Betz & Port. Stearns County, where St. Joseph is located about 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis, accounted for 2.8% of all traffic fatalities statewide between 2014 and 2019, placing it among the ten highest-risk counties in Minnesota for severe crashes, per Goldenberg Lauricella, PLLC.
Statewide, preliminary data show 370 traffic fatalities on Minnesota roads in 2025, down from 469 recorded in 2024, according to the City of Maplewood. The decline hasn't erased the risks facing pedestrians and scooter riders on corridors like 12th Avenue Southeast, where commuter and residential traffic mix near schools and the college campus. For now, the driver who struck the scooter rider outside St. Joseph and kept going remains unidentified, and the victim remains in the hospital.
