WHITE EARTH -- A second deadly crash in three months involving the same family took the lives of a pregnant mother and her two sons Friday, the Becker County Sheriff's Department said.
The three died in a horrific collision with a construction truck Friday morning on County Road 34 at Net Lake, about four miles east of White Earth.
WDAY TV reported that the victims were Cheyenne Norcross, 28, and her sons, Rock Jr., 3, and Keyian, 8 months, of Pine Point. WDAY also reported that, according to family, Norcross was four months pregnant.
"Everything is not going to bring her back, you know. And I'm just going to miss her," Norcross' cousin Dawn Basswood told WDAY. "She lived for her kids. She lived for her family."
This is the second multiple fatality accident involving the family in recent months. WDAY reported that three people killed in a July 4 crash were cousins of the victims in Friday's accident.
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Friday's crash victims died after their Ford subcompact collided with a construction pickup truck hauling a flatbed gooseneck trailer that held a skid steer.
The accident occurred around 11:30 a.m., when the Ford collided with the oncoming pickup truck, sending both vehicles careening down a steep embankment into Net Lake. The car ended up in about four feet of water. The occupants died in the crash, not by drowning, Gordon said.
The driver of the pickup truck, a rural Ogema man, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released.
It took about four hours to clear the scene, Gordon said. "It took a massive amount of equipment to clear this accident scene," he said, including the Jaws of Life and the Becker County Sheriff's Department Dive Team.
County Road 34 was closed in both directions for about five hours.
The White Earth Tribal Police department was first to arrive on the scene, so it is the lead agency handling the crash and will write the accident report, sharing it with other agencies, Gordon said.
The State Patrol will reconstruct the crash. One vehicle was eastbound and one was westbound, but it's not clear which is which at this point, Gordon said.
The state's commercial vehicle division will investigate the pickup truck involved.
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Firefighters and ambulance crews from Detroit Lakes and White Earth assisted at the scene.
