A driver and one of his passengers were killed after the motorist went through a stop sign in western Wisconsin and was struck by an SUV, authorities said. Two others caught up in the wreckage were in critical condition Sunday.
The collision occurred midafternoon Friday about 25 miles east of the Minnesota border at an intersection on the southwestern edge of Turtle Lake in Polk County, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Killed were the car's driver, Richard L. Reindahl, 58, of rural Clayton, Wis., and front-seat passenger Michael S. Austin, 44, also of rural Clayton.
A second passenger, Nicole M. Lundstrom, of Amery, Wis., was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, as was the SUV driver, James T. Leverty, 58, of New Richmond, Wis. They were in critical condition as of late Sunday morning, a hospital spokesman said.
According to the Sheriff's Office:
Reindahl was heading west on 125th street, "failed to stop for [the] stop sign and entered the intersection directly into [the] path" of Leverty's SUV, which was heading north on Hwy. 63.
Reindahl was dead at the scene. Austin died at the hospital several hours later.
Paul Walsh
