Three scouts and one adult killed in a hit-and-run in Wisconsin

LAKE HALLIE, Wisconsin – A community in western Wisconsin was afflicted on Sunday by the deaths of three scouts and an adult who were collecting garbage along a rural road when police announced that A van had turned the road and hit them before fleeing.

Authorities did not reveal the names of the girls or women who were hit by the truck on Saturday at Lake Hallie, including the name of a fourth girl who survived but was in critical condition in a hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. The girls were members of Troop 3055 and were Grade 4 students at Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls, about 145 km east of Minneapolis.

"Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the scouts north-west of the Great Lakes," Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, said in a statement Sunday. "The Girl Scout Movement around the world stands alongside our Wisconsin Girl Scout Sisters to cry and comfort themselves as a result of this terrible tragedy."

Police Sgt. Lake Hallie Daniel Sokup said the van, a black Ford F-150, had crossed a lane and turned into a roadside ditch, hitting the victims. The other members of the troop were picking up garbage from the opposite shoulder.

Colton Treu, a 21-year-old motorist from Chippewa Falls, sped at full speed, but made it later and will be charged with homicide, Sokup said. On Sunday, it was unclear whether Treu had a lawyer who could speak for him.

Sokup made it clear that it was not immediately clear if there were any other factors that could have caused the driver to leave the road. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the accident had occurred before a hill and that there was no blind spot, Sokup said it was was not "an unsecured area".

Cecily Spallees, a personal care attendant in a group home located near the crash site, told the newspaper that motorists were accelerating regularly on this stretch of road, which was rapidly pbading an area of ​​55 mi. / h to an area of ​​35 mph.

"I always tell one of my residents that he should not walk down this street at night," Spallees said. "This is not safe."

The Regional Council of Troop 3055, the Girl Scouts of the Northwest Great Lakes, expressed its condolences on Facebook and announced that a vigil will take place Sunday night at the girls' school.

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