By Lori Ehde
Cal Saarloos, Luverne, is referred to lately as "a walking miracle," since he survived what easily could have been a fatal accident Friday.
"The good Lord was with him," his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. "That's all I can say."
Shortly after 9 a.m. Friday, Cal Saarloos parked his Ford pickup alongside the family van on Highway 75 about a mile south of Luverne where it ran out of gas that morning.
With his hazard lights flashing, he had just started pouring gas in the van's tank when an International grain truck hit his pickup from behind, catapulting Saarloos through the air.
He was airlifted to McKennan Hospital and was held overnight for observation. He'd suffered a concussion, but doctors released him later the next day under orders to rest.
"I feel like a man given a second chance," Cal said from his home Wednesday.
"I'm just thankful for all the wonderful help I had at the scene of the accident."
He received stitches on the top of his head and on a puncture wound under a knee. Otherwise he's scraped and bruised and generally sore.
Their 17-year-old daughter, Jennifer, had been waiting in the van and was the first one to find her father when the dust settled.
"I automatically assumed he was dead," Jennifer said. "He was covered with blood, and he wasn't responding."
She said people are speculating how far her dad was thrown in the air, but she said she didn't see that part.
"I all of sudden saw the truck fly into the ditch. People say the only way he could have survived is if he went over the grain truck," she said.
In retrospect, she knows she's also lucky to be alive. She had been waiting outside between the pickup and the van, but since it was chilly that morning, her dad told her to wait in the van.
That turned out to be a lifesaving suggestion, since the van was sideswiped during the accident, possibly by the pickup being towed by the grain truck.
"That night, I didn't sleep at all," she said. "I kept thinking about the accident."
Though he's under doctor's orders to take it easy, that's easier said than done for a farmer in the middle of harvest season.
"I have to yell at him to rest, but it's hard to keep him down," Betty said.
She said their 15-year-old son, Jeremiah, has handled much of the duties, with extra help from uncles and cousins.
According to the Minnesota Highway Patrol, the grain truck and pickup it was towing are owned by Van Berkel Farms, Hull, Iowa.
It was driven by Todd DeJong, also of Hull. He was treated and released at Luverne Community Hospital.
Jennifer said her dad's pickup was highly visible on a flat stretch of road.