Driver & Construction Worker Airlifted After Van Hits Scissor Lift Inside of Minnesota North Shore Tunnel

Two Harbors, MN (KROC-AM News)- Two construction workers and a driver were injured after a crash in a construction zone inside of a northern Minnesota tunnel. 

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The driver and one of the workers suffered severe injuries, the State Patrol says. First responders were dispatched to the incident shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday. 

The road through the workzone is reduced to a single lane and is controlled by a traffic light. 

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Van Collides With Cones & Scissor Lift Inside of North Shore Tunnel, Construction Worker & Driver Airlifted

The crash occurred inside of the Lafayette Bluff Tunnel, which is about eight miles northeast of Two Harbors along Minnesota’s North Shore. 

A van heading north on Hwy. 61 entered the closed construction lane inside of the tunnel where it hit multiple construction barrels and collided with a scissor lift with two workers on it, the state crash report says. 

The lift was extended to reach the ceiling of the tunnel. One of the workers fell to the ground and the other pulled himself to safety by grabbing onto a light fixture as the lift fell beneath him, the State Patrol says. 

27-year-old Benjamin John Kidd was the worker who fell to the ground, the crash report indicates. 

The Duluth man and the driver, identified as 34-year-old Patches Magickbeans of Milwaukee, WI, were airlifted to a Duluth hospital with life-threatening injuries. 

Magickbeans was not buckled up and it’s not known if alcohol was involved in the crash, according to the state crash report. 

The State Patrol says the other worker, identified as 37-year-old Bradley Nicholas Kostiuk of Duluth, was treated at the scene for non-life-threatening injuries.