A driver whose van crashed into a construction lift in a North Shore tunnel, critically injuring one worker and leaving another stranded 25 feet above the road, faces two charges of driving while under the influence of a controlled substance.
Patches Magickbeans, 34, of Hartland, Wis., is also accused of having more than 50 grams of psilocybin mushrooms in a plastic container in his van. Officers at the scene suspected he had used a controlled substance, based on his behavior.
Magickbeans and worker Benjamin John Kidd, 27, of Duluth were taken by air ambulance to a hospital. Bradley Nicholas Kostiuk, 37, of Duluth was badly bruised but avoided a fall by pulling himself into the lighting system they were installing “as the lift was swept out from under me,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Magickbeans is being held in the Lake County jail. His next court appearance is Aug. 4. He is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm and possession of a controlled substance.
Midafternoon on June 19, Kidd and Kostiuk were working on a lighting system from a scissor lift in the Lafayette Bluff Tunnel on Hwy. 61, 7 miles north of Two Harbors on the North Shore of Lake Superior. According to court documents, an off-duty police officer was behind the van and driving north when he saw it swerve, hit a curb and several traffic cones, then hit the lift.
The van hit the tunnel wall and rolled several times. One worker fell to the ground; the other had pulled himself high into the overhead light fixture.
Emergency responders got Magickbeans out of the van. An officer at the scene said his eyes were abnormally wide, he was swinging his arms and saying things that didn’t make sense. He interacted with things in the air that weren’t there. The officer believed he was impaired by a controlled substance but not alcohol.
In removing items from the van, emergency workers found more than 89 grams of psilocybin mushrooms in gallon zip bags packed into a plastic container.
