Tragic accident kills 1

Alice Campbell Havre Daily News [email protected]

Nine-year-old Kellen Patrick Lund was struck and killed by a semi-truck Monday afternoon at 1st Street and 7th Avenue. Police responded to the scene after receiving a call at 2:34 p.m. reporting the accident. "At this point, all I can really tell you is it was an accident," Havre Police Chief Jerry Nystrom said this morning. The truck, stopped at the light on the bridge before making a right-hand turn onto 1st Street and hitting Lund, who was pushing his bike across the street heading east on 1st Street, Nystrom said. While the investigation is ongoing, Nystrom said, it appears that it was an accident, and no charges have been filed. "There was just a lot of confusion, and the truck driver didn't even see or realize that there had been an accident," Nystrom said. It looked like the truck driver was making a "safe legal turn on red," while a boy was "trying to cross at the same time," said Richard Leeds, a recent Havre High School graduate, who witnessed the accident. During the turn, "(the driver) didn't see anyone down there so he just kept going," he added, running over the boy with the driver'sside tire. Char Gregori, who called 911 after the accident, told the Havre Daily News that the truck continued down 1st Street, dragging the boy's bicycle behind until the driver realized that something was wrong. An ambulance was already on the way by the time Leeds parked his vehicle, he said. Lund was transported from the scene to Northern Montana Hospital where he was pronounced dead, Nystrom said. Despite the tragic nature of the incident, Leeds said, the atmosphere was relatively calm. "It seemed pretty calm as Far as there wasn't a lot of pandemonium," he said, adding that there was "a lot of shock." "I'm assuming it was just adrenaline rush fueling me," Leeds said. But when he saw the injured boy lying on the pavement, he felt "a massive “oh, my God, I can't believe this,”" he added. It was "one of those “brings you down-to-earth' sort of moments and makes you kind of think," Leeds said, especially because his younger brother is not much older than Lund. The driver parked the truck under the viaduct, where he was headed en route to the grain elevators, where officials inspected it, said Nystrom