A wire that had been laid across a North End roadway on Wednesday morning snagged on a passing car, tightened around a utility worker’s leg, threw him into a speeding pickup truck, and amputated his leg at the knee.
A probable pedestrian hit by a car was reported near Rice Street and Geranium Avenue just before noon, and St. Paul police officers and paramedics responded. According to police Sgt. Michael Ernster, when they got there, they discovered that construction workers had stretched a cable over Rice Street and that cars were driving over it.
A passing vehicle, probably a truck or a Metro Transit bus traveling south on Rice, grabbed the cable at one point. A worker was standing next to the loose cable on the side of the road when it began to extend and entangle him.
The man was pushed into the roadway and smacked the side of a pickup vehicle driven by St. Paul Regional Water Services by the force of the tugged cable around his leg.
The man’s leg was cut at the knee because to the tension in the rope surrounding it. His injuries were not thought to be life threatening when he was transported to Regions Hospital.
The event is still being investigated, and all drivers complied with the law.
