The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office has released details about a crash over the weekend that claimed the life of an Oakland man and resulted in injuries to three other persons. Pott. County Sheriff Jeff Danker says the accident took place on 360th Street, just south of Iowa Highway 92, at around 12:45-p.m., Saturday.
Danker says 31-year-old Joshua Fritz of Oakland was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident just east of Treynor. He said Fritz’s vehicle was northbound on 360th, which is a B-level road, when it collided with a southbound vehicle driven by 19-year-old Jordan Easton of rural Council Bluffs. The vehicles met nearly head-on at the crest of the hill.
None of the occupants of the vehicles, other than a child, were wearing their seatbelts. A passenger in Fritz’s pickup, 4-year-old Clayton Fritz of Oakland, was taken by Macedonia Rescue to Council Bluffs Mercy Hospital. Easton was taken by Carson Rescue to Mercy Hospital, while a passenger in his pickup, 22-year-old Brendan Jones of Omaha, was transported by Macedonia Rescue to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. The sheriff says none of the injuries were believed to be life threatening.
Danker says the two vehicles were part of a coyote-hunting party. He says the accident remainsl under investigation.
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 from 2004-2005 during Operation Enduring Freedom. On February 14, 2008 he was married to Melissa Ann Miller. The couple has one son.