This past weekend’s foul weather caused a trio of Wisconsin automobile accidents that left 14 people dead and a dozen injured.
Three teenagers were killed Saturday and 10 others were injured in a five-car accident on I-90 approximately four miles northeast of the capital, authorities said. Jeremy LaRoche, 15, and Justin Vandre and Danielle Skatrud, both 16, were killed when their westbound 1989 Acura collided with a westbound 1986 Chevrolet van, crossing the median into oncoming traffic, where it collided with three eastbound vehicles. LaRoche, Vandre, and Skatrud were all ejected from the Acura and pronounced dead at the scene.
Police have been unable to determine whether the victims were wearing seat belts at the time of the collision.
“Usually we can say that, but the vehicle was disintegrated. It was just broken into so many pieces,” Wisconsin State Patrol Sgt. Marlene Harley told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Harley also said the police had been unable to determine whether the foggy, wet weather had contributed to the accident.
At 7:30 a.m. Friday, on I-43 near Cedar Grove, Wis., 35 miles north of Milwaukee, a pileup involving as many as 45 vehicles ignited a diesel fuel-fed fire among a number of cars, killing 10 and sending 38 to the hospital, seven in critical condition. Police identified the presence of heavy fog as contributing to the fatal accident, which was the deadliest in state history.
Officials have said investigators might have to use DNA tests in order to identify some of the bodies burned beyond recognition in fires sparked by the crash and fed by diesel fuel and a semi-trailer truck carrying paper products.
Police officials believe the accident began as cars in the southbound lanes began to strike each other as some slowed down in a heavy fog.
“They were dealing with zero visibility,” State Patrol Sgt. John Jones told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Witnesses said cars just kept driving into the fog at a high rate of speed.”
Cars and trucks continued to careen into the pileup for as long as five minutes, witnesses said.
Officials said four other accidents occurred nearby in both southbound and northbound lanes, resulting in no fatalities.
The northbound lanes of I-43 were reopened to traffic Friday evening, while the southbound lanes were reopened Saturday morning, with workers removing bodies and mangled cars into the early hours Saturday.
In close proximity to the pileup scene and at around the same time, a car occupied by two teenagers traveling to Cedar Grove High School collided with a semi-trailer truck, killing one and leaving another in critical condition.