No Charges in Fatal Fire Truck Crash

GRANITE FALLS — The Yellow Medicine County Attorney’s Office is not filing charges against the driver of a Wood Lake fire truck that overturned, resulting in the death of a passenger.

Forty-three-year-old Patrick Remiger of Wood Lake died in the crash on Sept. 27 near Cottonwood .

The county attorney said he made the decision after reviewing all of the evidence in the crash.

Thirty-seven-year-old Andrew Vanhecke of Wood Lake was driving the fire truck, which carried a tank of water. The water was a factor in the crash.

The attorney informed the West Central Tribune that the evidence “shows that Vanhecke took his eyes off the road momentarily, causing the fire truck to drift onto the shoulder of the roadway, and he unfortunately overcorrected which — given the water weight — caused the truck to lose control.”