ONTARIO, Wis. – Two people were hospitalized and one of them transferred to UW Hospital in Madison as the result of a crash near Ontario on Friday afternoon. Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson said emergency crews were dispatched to County Road F, near Harris Road at approximately 12:45 p.m. on Friday for a two-vehicle crash in the town of Forest.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Lucas Paul Downing, 34, of rural Kendall, Wis. was driving east and uphill. Diane Luisa Brewer, 67, of rural Ontario was driving west and as she crested the hill, she saw the Downing vehicle had crossed the centerline. Attempting to avoid a head-on collision, Brewer steered right. The left, front corner of the Downing vehicle struck and sideswiped the entire left side of the Brewer vehicle. Both frontal airbags in the Downing vehicle deployed while the side curtain airbag was activated in the Brewer vehicle.
Both Downing and Brewer were extricated from their vehicles by the Hillsboro Fire
Department. Both were transported to Gundersen St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hillsboro, by
Hillsboro Ambulance. Brewer was treated and released. Downing was later transferred to
the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, WI.
Brewer’s service dog, Jake, did not appear injured and was returned home, by a volunteer
with Ontario Fire & Rescue, where he will be closely monitored.
Assisting the Sheriff’s Office at the scene were Hillsboro Fire Department, Hillsboro Area
Ambulance, an ambulance from Ontario Fire & Rescue, Ontario Police Department, and the
Wisconsin State Patrol. Gundersen Air II was also dispatched, but re-routed and landed at
Gundersen St. Joseph’s Hospital, but the transfer to Madison was by ground transport.
All units had left the crash scene by approximately 3:00 PM
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