3 teens killed in separate crashes in Minnesota; wintry weather a factor in one wreck

Three teenagers died in sepa­rate sin­gle-ve­hi­cle crash­es Sun­day, with one of the wrecks com­ing dur­ing win­try driv­ing con­di­tions, auth­ori­ties said.

In the Twin Cities area, a pickup truck driv­er lost con­trol on Hwy. 55 in Eagan near Dodd Road about 4:20 p.m. and rolled into the me­di­an, the State Patrol said. Snow and ice covered the road at the time.

Pas­sen­ger Angely Bur­gos-Salas, 17, of Minneapolis, was thrown from the west­bound pickup and later died at HCMC. Bur­gos-Salas was not wear­ing a seat belt, the pa­trol said.

Three oth­ers from Minneapolis in the ve­hi­cle, all wear­ing seat belts, were not in­jured: driv­er Virginio S. Bur­gos, 57; Olga Salas, 53, and Keity Bur­gos, 13, ac­cord­ing to the pa­trol.

The pa­trol tal­lied 217 crash­es across the state from 1 to 9 p.m., and 49 vehi­cles eith­er spun out or went off the road.

Short­ly be­fore 5 p.m. on In­ter­state 90 in south­east­ern Minnesota, a pickup truck driv­er also lost con­trol and rolled into the me­di­an, the pa­trol said. The mo­tor­ist, a 16-year-old boy, did not sur­vive. He was not wear­ing a seat belt, the pa­trol not­ed. His 13-year-old pas­sen­ger, E­than J. Meeks of Racine, Wis., had on his seat belt and was not hurt, the pa­trol said.

The pa­trol said the in­ter­state pave­ment was dry at the time of the crash.

Speed and al­co­hol were con­sid­ered fac­tors in a crash that occurred about 1:40 a.m. northwest of the Twin Cities and in­volved­ a ve­hi­cle that went into the Mis­sis­sip­pi River in Big Lake Township af­ter missing a sharp curve in the 15500 block of County Road 30.

The Sher­burne County Sher­iff's Office said driv­er Dashon J. Ro­dri­guez, 19, of Nevis, Minn., was found dead in­side the ve­hi­cle un­der 11 feet of wa­ter. Pas­sen­ger De­vin M. Moksnes, 22, of Otsego, was slight­ly hurt and went to a near­by home for help, ac­cord­ing to the Sher­iff's Office.

Moksnes told investigators that he and Rodriguez had on their seat belts, the Sheriff's Office said.

Staff writer Mara Klecker contributed to this report.