LAKE HALLIE, WIS. – A community and Girl Scouts began Sunday to mourn the loss of three scouts and one adult who were struck and killed in a crash accident that occurred along a rural highway in Wisconsin.

Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo said on Sunday that the Girl Scouts stood alongside "our sci-fi sisters in Wisconsin to cry and comfort each other in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy".

A candlelight vigil will be held at Halmstad Elementary School, where the girls went to school at 6 pm Sunday.

The identities of the victims will be unveiled Monday morning, according to Sgt. Daniel Sokup of the Lake Hallie Police Department. He said that no other information is disclosed at this time.

Dressed in bright lime green life jackets, two small groups of Girl Scouts and their adult companions walked along both sides of County Road P in Chippewa County, West Wisconsin, late Saturday morning.

Grade 4 students had already used this rural road and community service along this road, clearing the stretch of farmland and residential areas just north-west of Lake Hallie in the spring and fall.

Suddenly, a black van rushing to the ground turned away from the road into the shallow ditch where some of the girls were walking, hitting several children and a woman with them. The truck then returned to the road and moved away quickly, according to police and witnesses.

A horror scene was left behind. Two girls and the chaperon lay on the side of the road. Two other scouts were taken by ambulance and helicopter to a hospital where one died later on Saturday.

The surviving girl was hospitalized in Rochester late Saturday in critical condition.

The driver of the van that hit them, 21-year-old Colten Treu, of Chippewa Falls, surrendered later.

Treu is currently being held at Chippewa County Jail, where he is expected to be charged with homicide for careless use, Sokup said Saturday.

The authorities claim that the accident occurred before a hill and that there was no blind spot. It is not clear if Treu was somehow distracted at the time, he said.

A family member of one of the girls who escaped the injury said that all the children were Scouts attending Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls. They were taking garbage in the grass between the road and a farm field near the highway. The gateway was around 11:40, while another small group was crossing the street when the Ford F-150 of Treu entered it, according to the relative, who did not want to be identified.

In just a few hours, tributes on social media began circulating online to pay homage to Troop 3055. The troupe's regional council, the Girl Scouts of the North West Great Lakes, announced the news on Facebook. The Post asked supporters to keep affected families in their "thoughts and prayers as they wrestle with this senseless loss."

"All hell is unleashed"

A neighbor who lives near the scene of the accident said he saw a group of about 10 scouts walking along the road wearing their safety vest around 11 am.

Shortly after, "hell is unleashed," he said.

The man, who refused to give his full name, said he had never heard the truck, but had seen rescue vehicles and helicopters run in the direction taken by the girls and had assumed the worst.

"It's dangerous," he said of the two-lane road, adding that he had been the scene of many accidents. "People are flying over the hill."

Cecily Spallees, personal care attendant in a group home located near the crash site, also said drivers routinely drove on that stretch of road, which was rapidly passing from an area of ​​55 to 35 mph 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, adding there was no streetlight in the area. "This is not safe."

Wisconsin State Patrol officers blocked the road and much of the surrounding land on Saturday night while the investigators were doing their job. Along with the Lake Hallie Police, Chippewa County MPs and Chippewa Falls Police participated in the investigation.

Several police vehicles were parked late Saturday at Treu's home in Chippewa Falls, where investigators searched the house, garage and driveway. A tow truck was parked near the garage.

Local residents said on social media that they had seen police converging on the house a few hours after the accident, while Treu was coming out to surrender.

In a statement prepared Saturday night, Sokup wrote: "The Lake Hallie Police Service would like to express our deepest condolences to the families involved."

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