A 50-year-old rural Brainerd woman died and another woman was injured at 8:43 a.m. Monday in a two-vehicle traffic accident at the intersection of Five Mile and Thompson roads, southeast of Brainerd.
Crow Wing County Sheriff Todd Dahl identified the victim as Roxanne M. Swanberg, age 50, of rural Brainerd.
Swanberg, office manager at Halvorson-Johnson Funeral Home in Brainerd, was on her way to help at a funeral at Bethel Lutheran Church Monday.Tim Taylor, who purchased the funeral home in January, said Swanberg had worked there a year last May. He remembered her as a compassionate person with a positive attitude who loved working with people. In addition to documentation work she also assisted with families at visitations.
“A very loving person,” Taylor said. “Great to work with.”
Taylor said Swanberg had just recently celebrated her 50th birthday and her 30th wedding anniversary. He said that among her survivors were her husband, Mike; and a son, Travis.
Swanberg, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was driving a minivan that was involved in a collision with a Dodge pick-up truck driven by Chelsey Lea Hettver, 19, of rural Brainerd. Hettver was discharged after being taken to Essentia Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd.
The intersection of the two dirt roads is 2 1/2 miles south of Highway 18 near Bethel Lutheran Church in Long Lake Township.
The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the State Patrol. Also assisting at the scene were the Brainerd Fire Department and North Memorial Ambulance.
MIKE O’ROURKE may be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
Comments (13)
Add commentI understand puting the story
I understand puting the story online asap to report the news, but i do not understand the need for pictures much less the video. I think it is just poor tast to be out there filming a video of someones death. Mr O'Rourke, you should be ashamed of your actions. I am sure the family and friends of the victims recognised the cars in the pictures and videos. You know what they say about karma... I hope one day you dont have some heartless reporter with no reguard for you, filming your family tragities! As far as i am concerned you owe the Swanberg family a huge apoligy and should remove the video!
agree, stopahead
It should be removed.
Dirt roads?
"The intersection of the two dirt roads is 2 1/2 miles south of Highway 18 near Bethel Lutheran Church in Long Lake Township."
Thompson Road is tar. Note the tar on the picture - very obviously this is a tar road.
If the Brainerd Dispatch writes an article it should be accurate. You are in too big of a hurry to put this on. Please wait: the family should have time to notify the loved ones.
My heart goes out to the families and loved ones involved. My prayers are with you.
Also agree with stopahead
I agree the video should be removed and the pictures were posted way too soon from the family being notified. They didn't even have time to notify the rest of their family before the pictures were posted.
We wish too express our
We wish too express our deepest sympathies to the Swanberg family during this most difficult time. Roxanne will always be remembered as the fun-loving, caring and considerate person she was. She will be missed but not forgotten. God Bless. Kim and Doug.
Brainerd Dispatch: Please
Brainerd Dispatch: Please comment on the newsworthiness of posting a video of the scene of a fatal car crash. Brainerd is a small community and I would believe this type of "tabloid journalism" will not be appreciated by many of your subscribers/site viewers. There may be a time when it would be productive to show a video of first responders performing their work at the scene of a death of one of our residents. I do not believe it to be less than 24 hours after the accident. Please show some compassion for all the family members involved and remove the video until such time it may become relevent. You always have the option of making it available to the families of those affected if they ever so chose. Thank you.
Dirt Roads & Pine trees
The Thompson road is tar, the 5 mile roads are dirt.The pines blocking the Thompson road should be REMOVED! giving the driver coming down 5 mile & Thompson a CLEAR view of what is coming down Thompson from the west....This is a horible tradgedy and hearts go out to all those affected by the accident. The emergency crews on scene did an exceptional job, our citizens can be proud of how quickly they responded!!
Re: Brainerd Disaptch: Please
First of all, we are sorry for the family's loss. At least two of our staff members knew the deceased also.
We did wait until law enforcement had notified immediate family before putting any photos online.
The video was not put online until 4 hours after the accident had taken place.
The video and the photos published give further context to the story - displaying to the reader a physical representation of the scene.
The choice to watch the video is up to the individual.
BD isn't at fault
The Dispatch did as every other newspaper and TV station would have done, run a picture or video of an accident scene that further descibes to the viewer what was written in the article. You want a website, newspaper, TV outlet with no pictures, go back to your radio. The picture and video were not posted until after the family had been notified.
Cut down pine trees or 4 way stop
1st of all i would like to express my deepest sympathies to all the families that were involved in this terrible accident. On a note: I live on 5 mile rd and have almost been hit twice at that intersection.
There is...
There is a 4 way stop sign 1 mile down the road at the corner of Thompson Road and Cty Rd 144. By the amount of people who blow through that stop sign (which is also a blind corner), without even slowing down, I don't think another 4 way would do any good. The traffic on Thompson Road needs to slow down. It's too narrow, there's no shoulder, and sight lines are terrible.
I feel very bad for the families involved in this horrible accident. With the sun coming up and the trees in the way who knows what happened. It's sad. My heart goes out to them.
Tragedies
Tragedies sell newspapers, end of story. At least we arent like other countries that will actually show dead bodies on the front page. If it wasn't for the newspaper I wouldnt know about 2 of my friends dying..they are showing wreckage, not blood and gore, let the paper do their job.
Btw
Condolences to the families involved