Deputy and driver hospitalized after crash near Cook intersection
A stop-sign crash near Cook sent Deputy Brett Lucas and Orr driver Ayden Houde to hospitals and pulled in five agencies on a dry July 1 evening.
A crash at Highway 1 and Samuelson Road in Field Township turned a routine St. Louis County patrol into a two-patient emergency response at 7:48 p.m. July 1, sending both a deputy and a young Orr driver to the hospital.
The Minnesota State Patrol identified the vehicles as a 2022 Ford Explorer squad driven by 50-year-old Deputy Brett Lucas of Britt and a 2008 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 20-year-old Ayden Houde of Orr. The pickup was southbound on Samuelson Road and failed to stop at the stop sign before striking the westbound squad on Highway 1. Road conditions were dry.
Houde suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to Essentia Health in Duluth. Lucas was treated at Cook Hospital, and the sheriff’s office later said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
The collision brought in Cook Ambulance, Cook Fire Department, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Breitung Police and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a reminder of how many agencies can be drawn into a serious wreck in the county’s northern reaches. In a stretch of road where one mistake can send patients miles for care, the crash briefly tied up local responders and shifted attention from patrol coverage to rescue work.
Sheriff Gordon Ramsay thanked the first responders and community members who helped after the crash and wished Lucas a quick and complete recovery. St. Louis County says its sheriff’s office maintains outlying duty stations including Cook, which covers law enforcement in the City of Cook, Orr and Kabetogama, a setup that often leaves deputies as the first uniformed officers on scene when crashes happen far from Duluth.
The incident underscored the risk at rural intersections, where a stop-sign violation can become a major emergency in seconds. With one deputy and one civilian driver both taken out of service, the collision also showed how quickly a single roadway mistake can strain coverage, transport and hospital access across northern St. Louis County.
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