(KIWA Staff Photo)Alvord, Iowa– A Sioux Center man was taken to the hospital after a crash near Alvord on Monday, August 24, 2026.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office reports that at about 7:55 a.m., 25-year-old Gauge Erickson of Larchwood was driving a 2011 Chevy van eastbound on 200th Street, four miles west and one north of Alvord. They tell us that 48-year-old Daniel Valenzuela Santacruz of Sioux Center was northbound on Dipper Avenue in a 2009 Chevy pickup.
The report says that the intersection is an uncontrolled intersection, and Erickson allegedly failed to yield to Valenzuela Santacruz. The sheriff says both vehicles panic-braked before impact and collided. They ended up in a soybean field.
The Lyon County Ambulance took Valenzuela Santacruz to Avera Merrill Pioneer Hospital in Rock Rapids.
Both vehicles were considered totaled: Erickson’s Chevy van with$10,000 in damages, and Valenzuela Santacruz’s Chevy pickup with $25,000 in damages. The soybeans, owned by William Fluit, sustained about a hundred dollars in damage.
Erickson was charged with failure to yield to vehicle on the right.
