By Lori Ehde
A Hardwick woman is recovering from injuries she received after falling out of the back of a moving pickup Saturday on Highway 75.
Christina Casazza, 25, was riding in the back of her friend's Dodge Dakota pickup holding a mattress the two were transporting to CasazzaÕs new residence in Luverne.
The driver, 27-year-old Jeannie Shamatt, Hardwick, had just turned the corner from Hardwick and was headed south on Highway 75 when the wind caught the mattress and flipped it out of the pickup bed.
In the process, Casazza, who had been riding in the back to stabilize the mattress, was thrown onto the road.
The ambulance was called to the accident at noon Sunday. She was taken to Luverne Community Hospital and was airlifted to Avera McKennan Hospital, Sioux Falls.
Casazza, speaking from her hospital room Monday, said the pickup wasn't going very fast when she fell Ð possibly 30 to 35 miles per hour.
She said she had no broken bones, but abrasions to her head required staples and she suffered bruises and abrasions over her entire body.
She was under observation for a slight concussion, but she was told sheÕd likely be released later that afternoon.
The Minnesota Highway Patrol also responded to a rollover accident earlier that day on Interstate 90 by Adrian.
A 1995 Ford Aerostar mini van was totaled at 7:30 a.m., but its driver, David Coon, Cottage Grove, suffered only minor abrasions and didn't require medical attention.
Coon, 23, had been wearing his seatbelt.