NORTH DAKOTA HIGHWAY PATROL

UPDATED: Silver alert ends after woman is found

Staff reports — Sat, 17 May 2025 23:14:03 GMT

GRAND FORKS — The North Dakota Highway Patrol and state Bureau of Criminal Investigation canceled a silver alert after the missing woman was found Saturday evening.

The alert was issued Saturday, May 17, at the request of the Pembina County Sheriff's Office, according to a release sent to the media. The alert was for Jean Morrison, 79, of Walhalla, North Dakota.

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Man fleeing Minnesota patrol in stolen Audi caught in North Dakota

Forum staff — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 17:08:03 GMT

MAPLETON, N.D. — A 30-year-old man tried to flee Minnesota State Patrol troopers in a stolen Audi by crossing into North Dakota on Interstate 94, but he was arrested near Mapleton after driving into a field.

According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, troopers attempted to stop Dustin Powell, who has no permanent address, as he drove west from Minnesota around 9:30 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 18, on Interstate 94.

The Minnesota State Patrol had also tried to stop the stolen 2023 Audi Q7. Powell was driving at high speeds on I-94 until he was forced to stop in a field about 3 miles northwest of Mapleton.

Powell was arrested for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, fleeing, aggravated reckless driving and DUI refusal.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol continues to investigate the pursuit.

Mapleton is roughly 8 miles west of West Fargo.

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UPDATED: Grand Forks County plane crash causes 9th crop-dusting death in U.S. this year

Sav Kelly — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 23:46:36 GMT

GRAND FORKS COUNTY, N.D. — The fatal agricultural aircraft crash in northern Grand Forks County on Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 12, is the ninth crop-dusting fatality in the United States this year.

The single-engine Thrush S2R-T660 crashed after striking a power line near the intersection of 20th Street Northeast and 35th Avenue Northeast. The pilot has been identified as Tylor Johnson, 33, of Grand Forks.

“It’s a very risky job,” said Kody Grandalen, manager at CFE Agronomy, a business that provides crop-dusting services — formally known as aerial application — to farmers in the region. “Pilots are flying low to the crops — lots of trees and power lines and everything else they have to watch out for."

The North Dakota Highway Patrol responded to the crash. The investigation, though, is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration.

It is believed the crash occurred between 1:30 and 1:45 p.m. The time differs between NTSB and FAA statements.

NTSB investigators were on their way to the site as of Wednesday. They are expected to begin an on-scene investigation Thursday, according to a spokesperson.

“When on scene, the investigators will document the accident site, wreckage and gather witness statements and any surveillance video that may have captured the flight,” the spokesperson said.

This was North Dakota’s first fatal aircraft crash of the year, according to NTSB data. There have been six in Minnesota and 137 total in the U.S.

Of Minnesota's fatalities, two were agricultural pilots; Adam Parnow, of Crookston, was one of them.

Parnow died on June 27 when his spray plane crashed between Climax and Beltrami, or about 35-40 miles southeast of Grand Forks.

Little information is available regarding the circumstances of Parnow’s crash, but the other Minnesota agricultural crash this year occurred when the airplane struck the lower conductor on a set of power lines, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report.

Grandalen hears about power line crashes often.

“In certain times of the day, wires can be hard to see,” he said. “Misjudging when to pull up, or pilots trying to go underneath the lines, (that) seems to happen the most. Just because you can go under power lines at one part of the field doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll fit underneath them at the other end.”

Agricultural pilots are well-trained, Grandalen said, and go through the same licensing process as other commercial pilots. Their circumstances are quite different, though, because they fly so close to the ground.

“I would say it’s one of the more risky aviation jobs,” Grandalen said. “If something were to go wrong, you don’t have a lot of time to react.”

Crop-dusting season is fairly short, from around July to late September, so farmers want their crops taken care of as soon as possible. Weather conditions don't always allow for it, though.

“There (are) days that are perfect to be able to run a ground sprayer, but might not be the best day to be on the airplane,” Grandalen said.

The weather may seem nice from the ground, but conditions could be rough in an airplane.

“It’s crazy how different it can be,” Grandalen said.

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Driver to face vehicular homicide charge in West Fargo crash; victim named

Forum staff — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 16:35:08 GMT

WEST FARGO — A driver accused of running a red light and causing a fatal crash is expected to face several charges, including criminal vehicular homicide, the North Dakota Highway Patrol announced Saturday, July 1.

Sabastijan Tahirovic, 30, of Fargo, is also likely to face charges of driving under the influence of drugs, driving under suspension, marijuana possession and driving without liability insurance, the patrol said.

Tahirovic has not yet been formally charged. Court records did not list an attorney for him as of Saturday.

Authorities identified the driver killed as Saphyre Johnson, 28, of Bemidji, Minnesota.

Johnson was fatally injured Wednesday night, June 28, when the minivan Tahirovic was driving went through a red light and struck Johnson's car at a West Fargo intersection, according to the patrol.

Despite emergency crews taking life-saving measures, Johnson died at the scene, West Fargo police said.

The crash happened about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday at 19th Avenue East and Ninth Street East.

Johnson was driving south in a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt on Ninth Street, crossing the intersection with 19th Avenue. Johnson had a green light, the patrol said.

The 2010 Chrysler Town and Country minivan driven by Tahirovic was traveling westbound on 19th Avenue at a high speed when it ran the red light and hit the Cobalt on the driver’s door, according to the patrol.

The Cobalt left the road and struck an unoccupied Dodge Ram pickup truck and came to rest in the Blarney Stone parking lot, the patrol said. The minivan came to rest on the curb of 19th Avenue facing east.

Medics took Tahirovic to Sanford Medical Center to be treated for serious injuries that were not life-threatening, the patrol said. As of Saturday, his condition was not known, and he was not in custody at the Cass County Jail.

Johnson was wearing a seat belt when the crash happened, and Tahirovic was not wearing one, the patrol said.

Tahirovic has a lengthy criminal history that involves burglary, theft, drug, forgery and fleeing police charges.

In 2020, Clay County prosecutors charged him with criminal vehicular operation that caused "substantial bodily harm," receiving stolen property and third-degree burglary after he crashed a stolen car into a tree in Moorhead. The crash started a fire and injured Tahirovic's passenger.

He pleaded guilty to the burglary charge and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The other two charges were dismissed.

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Minnesota woman dies in 2-vehicle crash on Interstate 94 in Fargo-Moorhead

Helmut Schmidt — Mon, 08 May 2023 00:02:00 GMT

MOORHEAD — A Breckenridge, Minn., woman is dead after two vehicles collided in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 94 late Sunday morning, May 7, at the Red River bridge, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

The extent of injuries to others in the vehicles involved hadn't yet been determined by the time the Patrol released an initial report on the accident at 4:47 p.m.

The crash was reported about 11:29 a.m., though a description of the accident was not included in the initial report.

The woman who died was identified as Shalie Dawn Lipp, 21, of Breckenridge. She was a passenger in a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Joseph Vital Trottier, 35, of West Fargo.

The other vehicle involved in the crash was a 2017 Jeep Cherokee driven by Michael John Duea, 63, of Savage, Minn. His passengers were Kymberli Ann Duea, 58, of Savage, and Steven Vincent Duea, 66, of Otsego, Minn.

The crash backed up traffic for two hours Sunday, forcing eastbound traffic to be diverted off the freeway to Fargo’s South University Drive.

Traffic on I-94 was reopened about 1:40 p.m.

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Highway safety officials remind travelers: Summer months are dangerous on the road

David Olson — Fri, 27 May 2022 17:50:44 GMT

MOORHEAD — Safety officials from North Dakota and Minnesota teamed up Friday, May 27, to remind drivers that the lives they save by buckling up and slowing down may be their own or those of loved ones.

The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day is a high-travel period, marking the 100 most dangerous days each year to be on or near the road.

That was the message Friday at a news conference held at the Moorhead Travel Center, a rest area along Interstate 94 where representatives of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, Minnesota State Patrol, West Central Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths program and other public safety agencies encouraged sober and buckled-up driving on the roads this summer.

In addition, area students took part in a hands-on learning demonstration where they experienced the importance of seat belts by being strapped into machines that simulated what it's like to be in a crash.

According to Minnesota safety officials, preliminary counts indicate 108 motorists who were not wearing seat belts died on Minnesota roads in 2021, which was up three from 2020, when 105 died.

Both years were particularly deadly for motorists, as there were 73 unrestrained deaths on Minnesota roads in 2019, officials said, adding that the 108 unrestrained deaths in 2021 were the most since 2014.

Statistics from North Dakota show that 37 motorists who were not wearing seat belts died on North Dakota roads in 2021, down from 41 unrestrained fatalities in 2020.

As of May 20, 61% of motor vehicle fatalities in North Dakota in 2022 involved people who were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.

Safety efforts by law enforcement agencies this summer will include a "Click It or Ticket" campaign on both sides of the Red River, which runs from May 23 to June 5 and focuses on enforcing seat belt laws and promoting safety education.

Peyton Backes, who just completed her junior year at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton High ��, was among the students who took part in the safety demonstrations Friday by getting strapped into a machine that simulated what it would be like to be in a vehicle rollover.

She said the experience reinforced for her the wisdom of buckling up every time she gets in a vehicle.

Given the forces the machine exerted, Backes said it was clear to her that not using a seat belt would almost guarantee that in a crash an individual will go through a window or end up "flat on your face."

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