701 Rundown: Oct. 7, 2024

Here’s your weekly rundown of some of the most interesting headlines from newspapers across North Dakota.

Amenia woman pinned under vehicle

An 80-year-old Amenia woman was hospitalized after being pinned under a pickup Thursday, Sept. 19.

The accident happened around 8 p.m., on a paved portion of County Road 32 in Amenia.

The victim, Anne Hill, encountered straw bales on the roadway and stopped to remove them. She failed to successfully place the vehicle in park prior to exiting, falling upon stepping onto the road way.

The slow-moving vehicle rolled on to her, pinning her right leg beneath the vehicle's front left tire.

After an estimated 15 to 20 minutes, neighbors heard calls for help and were able to extricate Hill prior to the arrival of emergency crews.

Hill was transported by ambulance to Sanford Hospital in Fargo with non-life threatening injuries.

(Story by Angela Kolden, Cass County Reporter)

Power outage in Bottineau caused by unfortunate mistake

A good part of Bottineau, and a smaller portion of rural Bottineau, lost power on Sept. 19, after power lines and a pole were struck down by a boom truck.

The outage started around 1:30 p.m. when a driver of a water drilling truck with a boom crane had just finished drilling a well northeast of the Bottineau airport.

The driver left the location after he finished drilling the well, but had left his boom crane in the upright position.

As he was driving down the road he came into contact with four of North Central Electric’s electrical lines, cutting through them.

North Central was called out to the site where they spliced all four wires together and had the electricity back on in one-and-a-half hours.

However, the driver of the water crane truck apparently hadn’t realized what happened and continued down the road with the boom still in the upright position, ultimately cutting through Otter Tail’s main feed and taking down an electrical pole.

The driver then came to a stop at an intersection with electrical wires hanging off his vehicle.

He stayed in his truck for his own safety and emergency response teams were called to assist the individual.

The power was turned back on not long after, but repairs continued into the early morning hours of the following day.

No one was injured in the incidents.

(Story by Scott Wagar, the Bottineau Courant)

Carrington woman fighting cancer battle

Shanna Barone's smile, sunny disposition and positive life outlook can light up a room.

The Carrington resident has displayed that friendly face to the public through her work as a customer service representative at Gate City Bank and Bank Forward and caregiver at Small Steps Childcare, and was recently hired by Carrington Public Schools as the high school study hall tutor.

A recent medical emergency, however, began a cruel twist in Shanna's story, one in which she is fighting hard to get her life back.

Her sister, Gwen Perkerewicz of Mandan, tells her story.

"Shanna had been experiencing some numbness and pain in her right side extremities," she said.

Much of her pain could have been explained by a fall she experienced while helping her significant other, Nate Johnson, with building a deck.

"She doctored for it, and it appeared to be a pinched nerve and possible muscle tightness. She landed pretty hard on a piece of lumber, so that seemed to make sense," said Perkerewicz.

Shanna began chiropractor visits which helped with the pain for the time being, but she then started to experience pretty significant headaches, which turned into migraines with nausea and vomiting.

On Thursday evening, September 19, she was found by her son, Grant, dazed and unable to move.

Upon transport to the hospital, she was later life flighted early Friday morning to Sanford Health in Fargo. There, it was discovered that she had two malignant tumors on her brain and significant swelling.

She had to undergo several surgeries right away to alleviate the immediate concerns, and she’s now working hard to recover.

Her fighting spirit has been an inspiration to all those who know and love her, said Perkerewicz.

"She is surrounded by a lot of family members, and so loved," she says.

Shanna has made remarkable progress with physical therapy as of Tuesday, Sept. 23, and will be wearing a helmet to protect her brain as it undergoes the healing process.

(Story by Erik Gjovik, The Foster County Independent)

Family and friends rallying around Central Valley teen after car-train collision

An offhanded question about whether he had tossed on deodorant and an “I love you” exchange with his dad may have saved Jack Knudsvig’s life.

The brief exchange on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 19 took only a moment before Knudsvig dashed out the door, but it may have been the difference between Jack’s 2008 GMC Envoy striking the side of a passing train, rather than being struck by one head-on at a railroad crossing minutes later.

The car-train collision involving Jack and a southbound train at an unmarked crossing along 15th Street Northeast a mile north of Buxton, N.D. on September 19 made statewide headlines.

The Envoy being driven by the rural Buxton teenager was dragged nearly 50 feet down the track after striking the side of the southbound train.

The N.D. Highway Patrol reported Jack had been wearing a seatbelt but had to be airlifted to a Fargo hospital with serious injuries.

The first emergency responder on scene was Jack’s father, who had only asked him to put deodorant on minutes earlier.

When he arrived a few BNSF Railway workers kept him from seeing his son in the state he was in, and soon Jack was on a helicopter bound for Fargo.

There’s been an outpouring of support ever since the incident, and Jack is now going through the recovery process. His brain was injured during the collision, but he was able to squeeze his doctor’s hands recently when asked to do so, showing some progress.

(Story by Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner)