A Becker man was seriously injured last Saturday in a two-vehicle accident on Hwy. 23 and Co. Rd. 16 in Becker Twp.
Lawrence Higdon, 23, of Becker was traveling south on Hwy. 23 when a Dish Network van, driven by Murphy LaVictoire, 28 of Foley ran a stop sign and t-boned Higdon’s pickup truck at the intersection.
One of the first people to come onto the scene was Adam Lumley and his wife, who were on their way to St. Cloud to donate plasma.
“We could see up ahead three people running across the road, so I knew something was up,” said Adam, who is a military veteran.
Two of the three people were Ken and Dave Kisner and the other person is unknown.
Lumley said he and the others checked on the van driver and the driver said he was doing all right. So the Lumleys and Kisners went to the truck that was sitting on its passenger side.
“We tried the doors but they were locked so I climbed through the back window that was smashed out,” said Lumley. “The boy was crumpled down on the passenger door and his head partway out the window.”
Lumley said he could see Higdon was unconscious and was worried about his airway so he lifted Higdon’s head out of the rubble and held him. Lumley said he was gurgling and bleeding all over.
“He started to come to after about five minutes and started shifting around, trying to get out,” said Adam. “I just calmed him down and talked to him until help came.”
Terry Foradory of the Becker Fire Dept. was the first emergency personnel at the scene and he and Lumley knew each other. Foradory called for a medivac Helicopter immediately and then started asking Lumley questions about the scene.
“I just described what we came upon and what we did and it was about that time someone from the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Dept. arrived,” Lumley said.
Lumley got the driver’s side door open and Higdon was eventually extricated from the vehicle. He was transported via helicopter to North Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. LaVictoire had minor injuries.
The accident occurred at 2:41 p.m. last Saturday and weather was not a cause.
Steve Doran at the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Dept. said LaVictoire was issued a citation for careless driving and the case is still under further investigation.
Lumley said just a week before he was on Co. Rd. 11 going north when he moved into the turn lane to go right on Co. Rd. 16.
“A car flew right through the stop sign and when I looked, he never touched his brake pedal,” he said. “It’s sorta scary something happens like this a week later.”
