A head-on collision four miles east of Crookston on Polk County Road 11 killed two people and sent two others to the hospital Thursday afternoon.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, two vehicles collided on the two-lane blacktop at about 4:10 p.m. Thursday. Two people were pronounced dead at the scene and two others were taken to Riverview Hospital in Crookston and then transferred to Altru Hospital in Grand Forks. One was in critical condition, the other in serious condition Thursday night.
No other information was released Thursday night by the sheriff's office.
But blowing snow and cold caused icy conditions across the region, making travel difficult as warm temperature began falling Thursday morning and blowing snow made it worse by late afternoon.
At least four other accidents were reported by the Minnesota State Patrol in Polk, Marshall and Pennington counties, including one that injured a Fisher woman.
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At 8 a.m., Ilene Yanish, 70, Fisher, was injured slightly when the 2003 Tahoe she was driving left U.S. Highway 2 east of Crookston and rolled in the median, coming back on its wheels.
Three other single-vehicle accidents Thursday afternoon in the three counties resulted in no injuries. All were connected to icy roads, the Patrol said.
At about 8:30 p.m., the North Dakota Department of Transportation issued a travel alert at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday night for the cities of Grand Forks, Larimore, Grafton and Cavalier in northeast North Dakota because of snow and blowing snow reducing visibility. The department said a no travel advisory issued earlier for north central North Dakota, including the Devils Lake area, remained in effect late Thursday night.
According to the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks, one to three inches of snow were possible Thursday north of the U.S. Highway 2 corridor in the northern Red River Valley, with the highest totals expected nearest the Canadian border.
The weather service issued winter weather advisory until midnight Thursday that included the northeast North Dakota counties of Towner, Cavalier, Pembina, Benson, Ramsey, Walsh, Eddy, Nelson and Grand Forks; and the northwest Minnesota counties of Polk, Kittson, Roseau, Marshall, Pennington and Red Lake.
