Car Accidents

One teenager was killed and another was injured when the vehicle they were driving in was hit by a pickup truck yesterday morning in Barton.

The crash occurred when 17-year-old Danielle Held tried to make a sudden U-turn at Beaver Dam Road. A pickup truck behind Held collided with the driver’s side of Held’s vehicle as she turned in the intersection.

The driver, 17-year-old Danielle Held, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her passenger, Nolan Sheppard, 18, was flown to Froedtert Hospital.

The crash remains under investigation.

Here’s an article from the Wisconsin State Journal discussing how driving can be risky for some seniors:

Click here to read the article.

The Wisconsin State Patrol announced yesterday that more motorists than ever before are wearing seat belts.

According to the State Patrol, seat belt use increased by 6 percent to 79% in the latest survey.

That means four out of five drivers and passengers are taking the simple step of strapping on a seat belt. The higher compliance will save lives, misery and health care costs.

Despite the increase of seat belt use, Wisconsin is still below the national average for buckling up.

Neighboring states have much higher usage rates. Michigan has the highest seat-belt compliance rate in the nation at 98 percent. Iowa is at 93 percent, Illinois at 91 percent, and Minnesota at 90 percent.

The Wisconsin State Journal identified the worst intersection in the city today.

The worst intersection for crashes in Madison in 2009 was West Badger Road and South Park Street with 18 incidents, city traffic officials reported Monday.

The second most dangerous intersection was Commercial Avenue and North Thompson Drive, followed by a three-way tie: South Midvale Boulevard and Mineral Point Road, Portage and Thierer roads and South Blair Street and John Nolen Drive.

City Traffic Engineer David Dryer said each crash was mapped and diagrammed using global positioning software.

Wisconsin will join six other states in a weekend crackdown on impaired driving on Interstate 94.

The I-94 Corridor Traffic Enforcement Project will begin on Friday evening and end early Saturday morning. The project involves local, county and state police from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 491 people died in traffic-related deaths over the 4th of July weekend in 2008. Forty-three percent of those deaths involved a driver or motorcyclist with a blood alcohol percentage of at least 0.08%.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department is reporting a single-car accident Sunday morning in the town of Richwood killed three women and injured another.

Driver Jessica N. Dull, 19, of Richland Center, and passengers Jessica L. Hartung, 20, of Elmwood and Amanda M. Newman, 19, of Elk Mound died at the scene. Samantha Turnipseed, 19, of Richland Center, was severely injured. Turnipseed was taken to Boscobel Hospital and later transferred to a hospital in La Crosse.

Dull was southbound on Highway X in a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse when the car became airborne, left the road on the right side and struck the trees before rolling on its top. The accident is still under investigation.

Three people are dead and three injured after a two-car crash in northern Wisconsin.

The accident occurred Sunday afternoon on County Highway D and County Highway F in the Town of Rusk in Rusk County.

The three people killed died on the scene.

The crash is under investigation.

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Authorities released the names Wednesday of three teenagers who were killed when the car they were in crossed a median Tuesday and struck a vehicle on I-94 in Jefferson County.

A car wreck claimed the lives of three teenagers when the car they were in crossed a median and collided with another vehicle on I-94 in Jefferson County.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the driver, Victoria M. Braun, 16, was driving a Honda Civic that crashed into a Ford truck about 1:30 p.m. in the Town of Concord. Amanda L. Nowicki, 17, and Sean R. White, 17, were passengers.

The three occupants in the car were pronounced dead at the scene. They did not appear to be wearing seatbelts, according to the release.

The truck’s 19-year-old driver was wearing a seatbelt and was evaluated at the scene and released, according to the sheriff’s office.

General Motors is recalling 1.5 million vehicles worldwide after it was discovered a heated windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire.

The recall affects vehicles from the 2006 to 2009 model years. GM plans to disable the system, and give consumers $100 loss of the feature.

At this time, GM is aware of 5 fires and no known injuries or crashes. Of the 1.5 million vehicles being recalled, 1.4 million are in the U.S.

Toyota Motor Corporation agreed to pay a $16.375 million fine last April for failing to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of a dangerous pedal defect for almost four months. The fine is the largest permitted by law.

The $16.375 million fine is the largest civil penalty ever assessed against an auto manufacturer by NHTSA. This penalty relates specifically to both the “sticky pedal” and “slow to return pedal” defects, which resulted in Toyota’s recall of approximately 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. in late January.