A 68-year-old woman from Morton, Minn., died Friday night when her SUV was hit head-on by another vehicle on an icy road in Renville County, authorities said.
Seven people in the other vehicle were injured.
Joann M. Dehncke was driving north on Hwy. 71 in a 2013 Ford Escape when a 2007 Ford F-150 crossed the centerline and struck her SUV head-on, according to the State Patrol. The crash happened at 7:22 p.m.
Ta Ku, 25, of St. Paul, was driving the car with six passengers when she lost control on the ice-covered road and her car hit Dehncke's, the patrol said. Ku and her passengers were taken to a nearby hospital with noncritical injuries. The passengers, all of St. Paul, were Ka Lah, 32; Mawmaw Lay, 27; Lah Way, 7; Lar Way, 9; La Way, 5, and Dah Leh, 3.
No alcohol use was detected in either driver, and all involved were wearing seat belts, the patrol said.
It was the second weather-related fatal crash in Minnesota on Friday. Ler Gay, 42, of Fulda, Minn., died in a two-vehicle wreck on icy Hwy. 59 in Murray County in southwestern Minnesota just after 6 a.m.
NATALIE DAHER
