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Isanti man killed in Dec. 26 crash

Posted Online: 1/7/03

By Dawn Slade and Joel Stottrup

A head-on collision a mile east of Princeton on Hwy. 95 left one man dead and several injured shortly after 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 26.

Joshua Morgan Mummer-Beech, 25, Isanti, was driving a 1988 Chevrolet which crossed over the center line and hit an east-bound 1993 Chevrolet head-on.

Mummer-Beech died at the scene.

Richard Todd Ziebarth, 45, Princeton, was a passenger in Mummer-Beech's vehicle. He was airlifted to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale with head and chest injuries.

A second passenger in that vehicle, Justin Myron Falken, 23, Princeton, was taken to North Memorial Hospital with a broken leg.

Neither Mummer-Beech nor the passengers in his vehicle were wearing seat belts.

The second vehicle was driven by Pamela Jean Winans, 40, Princeton. Winans was taken to North Memorial with a broken leg.

Passengers in Winans vehicle were all from Princeton.

Daniel Raymond Winans, 38, suffered a broken sternum; Elsie Marie Hughes, 21, was airlifted to North Memorial with internal injuries; Daisy Jean Vanhagen, 16, was treated and released from Fairview Northland Regional Hospital in Princeton; Joshua Lance Vanhagen, 15, was airlifted to North Memorial with a broken leg and hip; and Brent Derek Winans, 11, was treated and released from Fairview Northland. Everyone in Winans' vehicle was wearing a seat belt.

The State Patrol reported the road conditions at the time of the accident as dry.

Local hospital,

firefighters busy

Once authorities determined the extent of injuries, Fairview Northland Regional Hospital in Princeton went into an orange-alert status, according to hospital spokesperson Kim Pederson.

That means there is a heightened level of awareness and a need for a heightened level of staffing, she explained.

Under orange alert, all available staff are called to the hospital to help. Enough responded to the alert that evening that there were actually more than needed to deal with everything, Pederson said. But that was a positive thing and it all went "extremely well," she said.

Three North Memorial ambulances and three ambulance helicopters ñ two from North Memorial and one from Life Link ñ were dispatched. Pederson said there were six ambulance runs to the hospital in 30 minutes.

It was the first time that Princeton Assistant Fire Chief Jim Roxbury can remember three helicopters being at the hospital at the same time. He noted that one of the helicopters initially landed at the accident site but was diverted to the hospital where critically injured people had been taken.

Roxbury helped at the accident scene and also at the hospital when the injured were taken there.

Roxbury estimated that about 30 firefighters were involved with the accident call and that the department spent about four hours on it, with most of that at the accident scene.

He said traffic was halted along a long stretch of Hwy. 95 for about two hours as rescue personnel removed people from vehicles.