Officials ID 3 women from Germany killed in Monroe County crash

SPARTA, Wis. — Officials have identified the three women killed and one person injured in a crash Sunday night in Monroe County.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation officials say that around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, a sedan carrying three people was going westbound on I-90 when it struck a deer. The sedan then slowed or stopped. That is when a tractor-trailer crashed into the back of the sedan, pushing it into a ditch and then overturning.

The three people in the sedan, 20-year-old Laura Margaret Prechtel, 22-year-old Christine Damer and 20-year-old Melina Sofia Orfanidis, all from Germany, died in the crash, officials said. The driver of the tractor-trailer, 46-year-old Ivica Modrusic, of Missouri, was taken to Sparta Hospital.

Only two of the three in the sedan were wearing seatbelts, according to the release. Modrusic was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

Police are still investigating the incident.

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