The lead in the Star Tribune story included enough information to update readers who had been following the story while simultaneously drawing in new readers by including unique details of the story.
The story used multiple news elements in the lead. Proximity was one element in the lead, because details about the location (a St. Paul man, Twin Cities airport) could interest readers in these areas. The final element, and possibly the element playing the largest roll in this lead, was emotions. Simply mentioning that the drunk man ran over a child would tug at a reader's heart strings, but the fact that he was on his way to welcome his soldier father home from the war is a unique and devastating situation sure to catch a reader's eye.
The lead also included 4 of the 5 W's: Who, What, Where, and Why. It leaves out the When, because even though the charges were recent, the actual accident happened last month so it is not the most timely. Specific details included where the man was from, what he was charged with, the age of the boy, where the accident took place, and why the boy was there. It was more general on the other W's, and we had to wait until later paragraphs to find out the name of the man and the boy and specifics on the accident.
The lead begins as a straight-forward hard news approach, giving us a general sense of what the story will be about. In addition to this, it also includes important background information that makes the story unique and newsworthy.
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