Two people died in traffic crashes on opposite ends of the Twin Cities area early Sunday, the State Patrol said.
An alleged drunken driver hit and killed a 34-year-old Richfield woman shortly before 2 a.m. at an intersection in Burnsville.
The State Patrol identified the victim as Erin C. Randall.
She was northbound on Nicollet Avenue S. and was stopped at the light at Hwy. 13 when another vehicle went off the road and hit Randall's car on the driver's side. Both vehicles went down the embankment in the southeast corner of the intersection. Randall died at the scene.
Randall was a 2007 Fulbright Scholar to Bangladesh and a recent past president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Fulbright Association, according to her friend, Michael Dorsher, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire journalism professor who served on the Fulbright board with her.
She worked as a staff researcher at the Wilder Foundation.
A 25-year-old Bloomington man was arrested and is being held in the Dakota County jail. He is expected to be charged with criminal vehicular homicide. The Star Tribune generally does not name suspects before they are charged.
In Anoka County, a three-vehicle accident involving a wrong-way driver killed one person in a head-on crash, the patrol said.
