Top Stories of 2012, No. 6: Tragedy on the Roads

Editor’s note: This was a sad story, and news of how the Cottage Grove teenager died was going around the community before authorities released the official cause.

Here’s the story, .

Update: 3:30 p.m., Friday, May 4

Authorities are looking into the possibility that the driver who died in Thursday’s car crash was electrocuted.

The vehicle hit a power pole and a line came down and made contact with the car, Woodbury Police Cmdr. Steve Wills said.

The driver has been identified as Nicholas Bibeau, 18, of Cottage Grove.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy, Wills said.

The car was traveling northbound on Sunny Hill Drive and slid off the dirt road and hit the pole, Wills said. There was “significant damage to the vehicle,” he said.

There were no signs that Bibeau was speeding at the time of the crash, but Wills said those roads can get slippery.

It also appears that both the driver and the juvenile female passenger were wearing their seatbelts, Wills said.

The investigation of the crash is ongoing.

Original story

A Cottage Grove teenager died Thursday and his female companion was hospitalized with serious injuries following a one-vehicle crash in Woodbury.

Neither individual’s name has been released.

The driver, the 18-year-old man, and the passenger, a 17-year-old girl from Cottage Grove, were rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with critical injuries, according to a release from the Woodbury Public Safety Department.

The man died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Woodbury and Cottage Grove authorities were called about the crash, at the 5800 block of Sunny Hill Drive, at 4:40 p.m. Thursday.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, but at this time it is not believed that drugs or alcohol played a role, according to the release.

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