One driver killed, another injured in highway crash

An Oconto man died May 16 in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 41 north of the city. Oconto County Sheriff Todd Skarban said in a news release that the Emergency Dispatch Center received a call at 11:03 a.m. regarding a collision between a passenger car and a pickup truck with injuries near the intersection with County Road W in the Town of Little River. The preliminary investigation indicated that the 64-year-old Oconto man, driving a Cadillac, had just turned south onto the highway when the Ford pickup truck driven by a 39-year-old Denmark man ran into him from the rear, shoving both vehicles into the median. Both vehicles sustained extensive damage, and the pickup overturned. The Oconto man died at the scene from his injuries, and the pickup driver was transported to a Green Bay hospital for treatment, Skarban said. What the sheriff described as an ongoing criminal investigation was being conducted by the Oconto County Sheriff’s Office, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Brown County Medical Examiner’s Office. Skarban said his office was assisted by the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office, Peshtigo Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol, the Wisconsin DNR, the Oconto Police Department, the Oconto County Highway Department, the Marinette County Highway Department, Town of Grover Fire Department, Town of Little River Fire Department, Bay Area Ambulance Service, Oconto Fire and EMS, and the Brown County Medical Examiner’s Office.