3 Girl Scouts, 1 adult killed in hit-and-run while picking up trash on road
LAKE HALLIE, Wis. — A western Wisconsin community on Sunday was grieving the deaths of three Girl Scouts and an adult who were collecting trash along a rural highway when a pickup truck veered off the road and hit them before speeding away, police said. A fourth girl was critically injured.
Authorities have not released the names of the victims who were struck Saturday in Lake Hallie, including the name of the girl who survived but was in critical condition at a hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. The girls were members of Troop 3055 and were fourth-grade students at Halmstad Elementary School in adjoining Chippewa Falls, which is about 90 miles east of Minneapolis.
"Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes," CEO Sylvia Acevedo of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement. "The Girl Scout Movement everywhere stands with our sister Girl Scouts in Wisconsin to grieve and comfort one another in the wake of this terrible tragedy."
Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup said the pickup, a black Ford F-150, crossed a lane and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims. Other members of the troop were pickup up trash from the opposite shoulder.
Colton Treu, 21, of Chippewa Falls, sped off but later surrendered and will be charged with four counts of homicide, Sokup said. It was unclear Sunday if Treu had an attorney who could speak for him.
Sokup said it was not immediately known if there were other factors that might have led the driver to leave the road. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the crash happened before a hill and there were no blind spots, Sokup said it was "not an unsafe area."
Cecily Spallees, a personal care attendant at a group home near the scene, told the publication that drivers regularly speed on that stretch of road, which quickly changes from a 55-mph to a 35-mph zone.
"I'm always telling one of my residents that he shouldn't walk this strip at night," Spallees said. "It's not safe."
Troop 3055's regional council, the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, expressed its condolences on Facebook, saying a vigil will be held Sunday evening at the girls' school.
