A rural Viola woman became Vernon County’s third traffic death of the year Sept. 7.

Sharon Grim, 70, died from injuries sustained in a one-vehicle crash on Hwy. 14 on Sugar Grove Hill east of Readstown.

According to the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office in Viroqua, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Grim, was driving northwest down the hill when her vehicle traveled off the right side of the road on a curve. It traveled several hundred feet in a ditch parallel to the highway, then struck an embankment. The vehicle became airborne, overturned, and Grim was ejected from the vehicle. It came to rest upright with Grim pinned between it and the embankment.

It does not appear Grim was wearing a seatbelt during the crash, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

After being freed from the wreckage by the Viola and Readstown fire departments, she  was flown by Med-Link Air to Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, where she was pronounced dead at 5:45 p.m.

Tri-State Ambulance assisted at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation by both the Sheriff’s Office and the Coroner’s Office.