More details have been released about a crash over the weekend that claimed the life of a western Iowa man and injured three others. It happened around 12:45 p.m. Saturday on a level B road, just south of Iowa Highway 92, near Treynor.
Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says the accident involved two pickup trucks, including one that was driven by 19-year-old Jordan Easton of Council Bluffs. “They were traveling southbound and at the crest of a hill, a northbound pickup, driven by Joshua Fritz, collided pretty much head-on with the southbound vehicle,” Danker said. Thirty-one-year-old Joshua Fritz, of Oakland, Iowa, died at the scene. Fritz’s four-year-old son, Clayton, was strapped in a car seat in the pickup and was hospitalized. Easton and a passenger in his pickup, 22-year-old Brendan Jones of Omaha, were also injured.
Danker said none of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening. The victims were all part of a hunting party. “They were with a group of people coyote hunting in the area,” Danker said. There was some ice and snow on the roadway, but Danker said it’s not clear if that contributed to the crash.
An announcement from the Rieken-Vieth Funeral Home says Fritz graduated from Riverside High School with the class of 2000. Afterward, he enlisted in the National Guard where he served until 2008. While in the Guard, he was stationed in Afghanistan between 2004-2005. On February 14, 2008, Fritz married Melissa Ann Miller.
(Reporting by Ric Hansen, KJAN, Atlantic)