NEW DIGGINGS – One person is dead and two injured, with one arrested on multiple charges in a one vehicle rollover on Saturday, June 17 in the Town of New Diggings.
Patricio Soto-Alarcon, 35, Darlington, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Lafayette County Coroner’s Office.
Soto-Alarcon was the passenger in a vehicle driven by Mateo Fuentes Flores, 22, Darlington on STH 11 around 3:25 a.m.
The vehicle was traveling east on STH 11, when it left the paved portion of the roadway onto the right shoulder, striking the guardrail, then crossing all three lanes of traffic before hitting the embankment on the north side of the road. The vehicle then overturned and came to rest on its top.
Fuentes Flores and another passenger, Hiliberto Fuentes Cervantes, 22, Darlington, were transported from the scene by Hazel Green EMS to Southwest Health Center in Platteville with minor injuries.
Fuentes Flores was then arrested and transported to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s jail where he remains in custody pending an initial appearance in Lafayette County Circuit Court on multiple charges including but not limited to Operating a Motor Vehicle While Intoxicated (2nd offense), Knowingly Operating while Revoked Causing Death and Homicide by Intoxicated use of a Motor Vehicle, as well as other traffic offenses.
All three occupants were wearing seatbelts and remained in the vehicle.
The Benton First Response and Fire Department, Lafayette County Highway Department and the Wisconsin State Patrol Crash Reconstruction Unit assisted the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office at the scene.
This is the second traffic fatality of 2017 in Lafayette County.