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Misfortune often comes in more than one dose, and that is the case for Agtegra Cooperative. The agriculture company that owns grain elevators in both North and South Dakota, headquartered in Aberdeen, has been the recipient of misfortune via federal court lawsuits filed in December with Agtegra as defendant.

But in these cases, the greater misfortune could be to the parties that filed lawsuits. In the first case filed Dec. 12, an Agtegra employee driving a company-owned truck is accused of blowing through a stop sign in rural Minnehaha County and t-boning a vehicle driven by Jamie Monroe. She was on her way on the morning of June 6 to buy groceries for her children at the time of the accident. Later that day, she was scheduled to fly to Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, Oren, to celebrate their 17^th wedding anniversary, according to the lawsuit. She died at the scene.

The lawsuit accuses the Agtegra employee of being on his cell phone, taking selfies and sending them to friends. He ignored rumble strips and warnings that cross traffic at Jasper Street and 482^nd Avenue and did not stop.

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