Charges: Man tried to kill postal worker by ramming her truck at 80 mph
An Iron Range man is facing assault charges after ramming a U.S. Postal Service truck at 80 mph with his pickup.
Alan Birt, 56, of Bovey, Minnesota, is accused of hitting the mail truck so hard that it ejected the 55-year-old postal worker from her vehicle.
She suffered a life-threatening head injury, including a skull fracture and four broken ribs.
It allegedly happened last Wednesday, May 8, at around 10:53 a.m. in Hoyt Lakes, where witnesses saw a brand new, 3/4 ton pickup hurtling down Dorchester Drive.
Witnesses said they heard the pickup traveling at "pedal to the floor" speed, with one person estimating it was going 80 mph as it rammed into the mail truck from behind.
As the USPS employee was being attended to by witnesses, Birt was "yelling and ranting" in a field, and became uncooperative when approached by police officers, saying he needed to be tasered.
It required four officers to take him into custody.
When later interviewed by police, Birt said he was upset with the U.S. Postal Service and knew that somebody was in the truck he'd rammed.
When asked if he remembered anything about the crash later in a hospital, he said: "Yeah, I killed that [expletive] useless mail carrier."
When told that the postal worker didn't die, he said: "Well, someone should."
