Two 22-year-old men from Warren, Minnesota, died Saturday after the vehicle they were riding in overturned into a water-filled drainage ditch in Polk County. The Polk County Sheriff's Office identified the victims as Johnny Alexander Ortiz and Devin Michael Casares, both of whom were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to valleynewslive.com, deputies responded at about 11:50 a.m. to a report of a single-vehicle crash on County Road 20, roughly half a mile north of 150th Street NW. A passerby had come across the car already overturned and resting on its roof in the flooded ditch, and alerted authorities. As KROX reported, the sheriff's office was assisted at the scene by the Minnesota State Patrol, Warren Fire and Rescue, and North Valley Health Center ambulance crews.
Deputies and Firefighters Find Both Men Inside the Car
When deputies and the Warren Fire Department arrived, they found both men still inside the submerged vehicle. Ortiz and Casares were pronounced dead at the scene, and the sheriff's office said it would release no further information at this time. The crash remains under investigation, and no details have been confirmed about what led the vehicle to leave the roadway.
Polk County has seen a string of fatal wrecks over the years. The county logged 17 fatal crashes and 20 fatalities between 2017 and 2023, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System compiled by farsapi.com.
A Rough Year on Minnesota Roads
Saturday's crash adds to what has already been a difficult year for traffic safety across the state. Minnesota's deadly crash count stood at 330 through much of October, a nearly 9% increase over the same point the previous year, per the Minnesota State Patrol's figures reported by kttc.com. Those crashes this year have involved 35 pedestrians, 68 motorcyclists, six bicyclists, 11 ATV or UTV occupants and one snowmobile occupant, the station reported.
State troopers have pointed to a familiar set of culprits behind the rise. Officials cited not wearing seat belts, speeding, impaired driving and distracted driving as common factors in this year's deadly crashes, kttc.com noted. Preliminary Minnesota Department of Public Safety data cited by the outlet also found alcohol has been the leading contributing factor in deadly crashes so far this year, with more than 17,000 DWI arrests made statewide as of August.
2025 Had Marked a Rare Improvement
The uptick this year stands in contrast to last year's numbers. Minnesota recorded 370 traffic deaths on its roadways in 2025, down from 475 in 2024, according to preliminary state data reported by mprnews.org. That total marked the state's lowest death toll since 2019, and came in below the roughly 380 deaths per year the state averaged in the five years before the pandemic. The outlet linked part of that improvement to a 2023 boost in funding from the state legislature, which allocated $20 million to traffic safety.
