5-Year-Old Minnesota Girl Died After Weekend Traffic Crash

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Lake Elmo, MN (KROC-AM News) - The young child who was critically injured in a traffic crash Saturday evening in Washington County has died from her injuries.

The State Patrol has identified the victim as 5-year-old Morgan Rae Petersen of St. Paul. She was a passenger in a vehicle that was stalled in the left traffic lane on eastbound Highway 36 in Lake Elmo when it was rear-ended by another vehicle traveling at highway speeds.

The little girl and three other people were transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul following the collision. The State Patrol says they all suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including a 10-year-old boy who was a passenger in the stalled car.

The driver of the car has been identified as 43-year-old Christopher Petersen of St. Paul. The State Patrol listed 47-year-old Jeffrey Dean Alexander of St. Paul as the driver of the second vehicle.

The death of the little girl raised the traffic death toll in Minnesota since late Friday morning to six.

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The most recent traffic fatality occurred early Sunday morning and may have been the result of a medical emergency. The State Patrol still has not identified the 42-year-old man who died after his vehicle collided with the median barrier on Highway 62 in Edina.

The Redwood County Sheriff's Office today released the name of the man whose body was found in a vehicle that had crashed into the Minnesota River on Friday. 30-year-old Thaddeus Lorenz was 30 years old. The Sheriff's Office is still investigating how his vehicle ended up in the river in an area northwest of Redwood Falls.

The list of victims from traffic crashes includes a man and woman who perished when their vehicle collided with a semi-truck that was traveling in the opposite direction on a Highway near Minnetrista Friday morning. They were identified as 40-year-old Darren Tomber of Watertown and 32-year-old Shawna Jacobson of Brooten.

The sixth victim was a 37-year-old man from Michigan who was in an SUV that struck a driveway approach and vaulted into some trees along a highway in Itasca County Saturday morning.