2 children drown, 6 others injured after SUV lands in slough on I-94 by Jamestown

ELDRIDGE, N.D. — Two young boys are dead and six other people are in the hospital after an SUV went off Interstate 94 by Jamestown.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol says shortly after 5 p.m. Monday, July 15, an SUV with one adult driver and seven children was headed east when the SUV went off the interstate and then rolled into a slough.

The 1997 Suburban landed on its side in the water.

Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser says the slough is about 9 feet deep due to all the rain this summer.

The adult driver, a 30-year-old woman from Cleveland, North Dakota, was taken to a Fargo hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

One girl was also flown to a Fargo hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Four other children were taken to the hospital, but are expected to survive.

A dive team located the bodies of the two other boys after a four-hour search in the water.

They were found about 20 feet from the SUV.

Kaiser said the fire department had to drain part of the slough as it was difficult to search due to a large amount of weeds.

The highway patrol says the age range of the children was between 3 and 11.

A family member said that the two boys who were killed were 7 and 10.

Kaiser said a passerby helped one child get out of the water. It’s unclear how the others got out.

Everyone involved is related and from the Jamestown area according to police and family.

The highway patrol says it is too early to say why the SUV went off the road.

Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years.