BREITUNG TWP— Kristine Jonas pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection near McKinley Park Campground last Thursday when she felt something wasn’t quite right. She looked up the steep slope to her left, where a work crew had just wrapped up a trail reconstruction project for the day, and noticed a large dump truck gaining speed as it rolled backward down the hill, headed her way.
“At first, I thought it seemed it was backing up too fast. Then I realized it was a runaway.”
Time, for a moment seemed to stand still, she said, as she watched the truck roll her way, taking out two trees before crossing McKinley Park Rd., where it flattened construction barricades, glanced off a power pole and crushed a Frontier telecommunications junction box. It came to rest in a swampy area just past the junction box.
It was only later that Jonas realized she came very close to being crushed.
The large dumper had been parked at the end of the day by a Mesabi Bituminous crew that was working to install switchbacks on the bike trail that drops down the steep hill. Why the truck began to roll isn’t clear as the incident remains under investigation according to Breitung Police Chief Dan Reing.
The truck’s glancing blow to the power pole was enough to prompt a three-hour power outage affecting McKinley Park Campground and the nearby lake homes from McKinley Park Acres west nearly to Hoodoo Point.
The Frontier junction box had provided phone and internet service to McKinley Park Acres, and its destruction had left the dozens of homes in the area without service. As of Tuesday, Frontier workers had begun work to repair the connection, fully five days after the service was cut.
Despite the inconvenience, most folks recognized that the outcome could have been much worse. “It’s so scary to think about,” said Susie Chiabotti, who manages the McKinley Park Campground with her husband Jerry. Had the truck been parked at a slightly different angle, she noted, it could have rolled right into the campground, taking out RVs and possibly campers themselves along the way.
Jonas agreed. “I’m so thankful no one was hurt,” she stated in a Facebook post she wrote after the incident. Jonas is the one who initially called 911. “After giving the police my statement, it dawned on me that I could have easily been crushed. I’m glad I looked up and thought something was weird, so I hesitated before heading up the road.”
The Timberjay reached out to Mesabi Bituminous for comment on the incident. The company did not respond as of presstime.
Jonas said the area had received significant rain the day before and that, combined with the fresh soil being laid down by workers, may have made for soft soil that gave way, allowing the big vehicle to start rolling.
“I’m just glad that I looked up and saw it and that no one was hurt,” she said.