Four people died in traffic crashes on Minnesota roads Wednesday, including two motorists who were not wearing their seat belts, the State Patrol said.
Emilie G. Skjerven, 78, and Carol C. Gerardy, 79, both of Plummer, Minn., were killed when the vehicle they were traveling in was struck by a train in Red Lake County. Skjerven was driving east on a private driveway when she failed to yield at a stop sign for a railroad crossing. A Canadian Pacific train traveling south on the railroad tracks adjacent to Hwy. 59 in Emardville Township struck her vehicle about 10:47 a.m.
Both women died at the scene, the patrol said.
A couple of hours later, a New Prague woman was killed as she attempted a U-turn on Hwy. 13 in Waterville Township, in Le Sueur County. Jessica Karasch, 32, was headed south on Hwy. 13 when she made the maneuver at County Road 12 and was struck by a southbound semitrailer tractor, the patrol said.
Karasch, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene. The truck driver, Jonathon R. Bonar, 50, of Waldorf, Minn., was taken to Owatonna Hospital with noncritical injuries, the patrol said.
In a third crash, Barbara J. Fashant, 67, of Shakopee, was killed in a head-on crash in Scott County.
Fashant was driving west on Hwy. 282 when she drifted into the eastbound lane and collided with an eastbound pickup at Pueblo Avenue just before 5 p.m., the patrol said.
Fashant, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene. The pickup truck driver, Mark Neu, 52, of Shakopee, was not seriously hurt, the patrol said.
Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768
