A Tennessee woman died Friday in a rollover crash on the interstate near Big Timber.
The 21-year-old was driving west on Interstate 90 when she struck a median, according to a statement from Montana Highway Patrol. The fatal crash in Sweet Grass County was one of three across the state Friday.
The woman, who investigators said was from Afton, Tennessee, was traveling alone in a Lexus SUV. At mile marker 371, just east of Big Timber, she hit the median and the SUV overturned multiple times. It came to a stop on its wheels in the eastbound I-90 lanes. While she was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, first responders pronounced her dead at the scene.
Debris from the Lexus damaged a Subaru Outback carrying two people, according to MHP, but neither were hurt. The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation, but alcohol is suspected to be a factor.
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Later that same day, a woman was killed and an 11-year-old boy injured in a wreck on a secondary road west of Missoula. The two were traveling in a Chevy SUV, according to MHP, when the woman apparently rolled through a stop sign and into the path of an oncoming pickup truck.
The collision sent the SUV into a ditch, and the pickup truck followed, resulting in the pickup truck ending up on top of the SUV. The driver of the SUV, a 34-year-old woman from Missoula, was pronounced dead at the scene. The 11-year-old boy was taken to a local hospital. Two people traveling in the pickup truck were no hurt in the wreck, per MHP.
About an hour after the crash in Missoula, a woman died after a wreck south of Troy in Lincoln County. A pickup truck driven by a 77-year-old man was turning into a private driveway along Montana Highway 56 when a southbound Jeep Wrangler carrying two adults and three children hit the truck.
The Jeep’s driver and a passenger, a 31-year-old woman from Libby, were ejected following the collision. Emergency crews transported the woman to a Kalispell hospital, according to MHP, where she died of her injuries. A 9-year-old boy injured in the wreck was taken to a hospital in Libby.
At least 49 people have died on Montana’s roads so far this year, according to data from the Montana Department of Transportation. Intoxicated driving is suspected to be a factor in roughly half of those fatal crashes. Earlier this month, a 20-year-old Billings man driving a stolen pickup truck died while being pursued by a Stillwater County deputy. MHP, the state Division of Criminal investigation, and the Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the crash.