Humboldt County man killed in Tuesday accident

A single-vehicle traffic accident two miles south of Thor Tuesday morning, May 10, claimed the life of a Humboldt County man, according to the Iowa State Patrol. Derrick Wayne Petersen, 35, Livermore, was pronounced dead at the scene, after his 2009 Dodge R-15 pickup crossed the center line and left County Road C-54 (270th Street), just west of Virginia Avenue. The accident occurred at 8:56 a.m. According to the report, Petersen’s Dodge pickup was traveling westbound on C-54, when the male driver had some type of medical event (seizure) that caused him to lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle left the roadway and struck a farm field fence and clipped two trees before coming to rest upright, facing east in the south ditch. Kacee M. Irle, 18, Eagle Grove, a female passenger in the pickup, was transported to Iowa Specialty Hospital in Clarion by Renwick Ambulance, where she was checked out and released. Both occupants were wearing lap and shoulder belts, according to the report. There were no witnesses to the crash, the State Patrol reports. There was an estimated $30,000 damage to the totaled Dodge vehicle and the other property. The Thor Fire Department assisted at the scene, along with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Humboldt County Sheriff Dean Kruger said the traffic fatality is the first of 2016 in Humboldt County.