A Wisconsin motorist struck a horse that was standing in a road and died Friday when her vehicle crashed in a ditch, authorities said.
Diane G. Johnson, 53, was driving south on County Hwy. T in Pleasant Valley when she struck a brown horse that had been in the middle of the road.
Johnson's vehicle veered off the road.
Her car went into a ditch and came to rest in a farm field just south of the intersection of County Hwy. T and County Hwy. Z/50th Avenue, the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office said.
The crash was reported at 6:42 a.m., the Sheriff's Office said.
First responders unsuccessfully attempted life-saving efforts at the scene, and Johnson, of Hammond, Wis., was pronounced dead by the St. Croix County medical examiner, said Capt. Jeff Klatt with the Sheriff's Office.
Johnson, who was wearing a seat belt, was the ninth traffic fatality in St. Croix County this year.
The horse did not survive, Klatt said.
