Four people were injured March 31 in two related crashes west of Coon Valley on Hwys. 14/61 in Hamburg township.
According to the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office in Viroqua, Lucas Knight, 18, Coon Valley, was turning left onto the highway from a private driveway at 7:20 a.m. As his vehicle entered the highway, it came into the path of a westbound vehicle driven by Michelle Brown, 29, Westby.
Her vehicle struck the driver’s side of Knight’s vehicle, then came to rest in the road while Knight’s vehicle slid off the north side of the road.
Knight, who was wearing a seat belt, sustained serious injuries and was extricated from his vehicle by the Coon Valley Fire Department. He was transported by Tri-State Ambulance to Gundersen Health System in La Crosse. According to the Vernon County Broadcaster of Viroqua, he was listed in fair condition April 1.
Brown sustained minor injures and did not seek medical care at the scene.
As emergency responders attended to the scene, a secondary collision involving three vehicles occurred just east of the first crash site.
Heather Dolan, 33, also of Westby, was driving west and struck the rear of a vehicle driven by Karen Slack, 24, rural Viroqua. The impact caused Slack’s vehicle to strike the rear of a vehicle driven by Nicole Whisler-Dayton, 42, rural Chaseburg.
Dolan and Slack sustained minor injuries, but did not require on-site medical care. Whisler-Dayton was uninjured.
Conditions at the time of the accident included dense fog.
Assisting were the Coon Valley First Responders, Town of Shelby Police and the La Crosse County Sheriff’s Office.