Second driver dies after May 16 crash

A second driver died after a crash in the Town of Little River the morning of May 16. On May 30, the Oconto County Sheriff’s Department released the traffic report from the crash, a collision between a passenger car and a pickup truck at the intersection of U.S. Highway 41 with County Road W in the Town of Little River. Michael Curtis La Court, 64, of Oconto, the driver of the pickup, died at the scene shortly after the accident, according to the report. The car driver, Allen Michael Laviolette, 39, of Denmark, was taken by ambulance to Aurora Bay Area Medical Center in Green Bay, where he died May 20. The report said that Laviolette was southbound on Highway 41 when La Court pulled onto the highway. Witness statements indicated the car was traveling “at an excessive rate of speed” and both drivers tried to get into the right southbound lane when the car collided with the right passenger side of La Court’s truck. The car caught fire and came to rest in the median, while the truck flipped and overturned into the median. Both drivers were ejected, the report said. The highway was closed for about five hours after the crash for an accident reconstruction investigation.