(Austin Schindler, WAOW) An intersection in Wood County proves to be dangerous and even deadly.
According to Austin Schindler with WAOW, on Dec. 13, 2024, Kasey Ramthun, a senior in high school, was killed driving near the intersection of HWY 10 and STH 186 near Auburndale. This isn’t the first instance of devastating events around that exact intersection.
Now, the county is rallying together to fix a massive problem in the area. “How do you tell your family that you couldn’t save someone” said Ashley Turner, Aunt of Kasey Ramthun. That’s exactly what Turner had to tell her family on the night of December 13.
She heard about a crash near the intersection of HWY 10 and 186, only living about a half mile from the intersection. Worried for her niece who was out and about, she checked Kasey’s location on her phone and realized the nightmare was real.
Turner said her instincts took over immediately as she left with her husband to the scene. “My husband and I had to pull the doorframe down to extract her. We got her to the side of the road and I did CPR until the ambulance pronounced her dead,” said Turner.
Turner is a registered nurse that works in the operating room and she’s seen death before, but nothing that hit this close to family. She was unable to save Kasey, and it’s a memory that runs through her head every day.
“My brother-in-law, Chad, Kasey’s dad, ran across the highway and screamed ‘Where’s my little girl?’ I had to tell him I tried, but I couldn’t save her,” Turner said. Wood County says Kasey is one of three fatal crashes on that intersection since 2014.
It’s not only that, but they mention they’ve reported 42 wrong way drivers and 27 other crashes in the past two years. Lieutenant Nathan Dean with the Wood County Sheriff’s Department makes frequent stops near that intersection, and regularly sees drivers going the wrong way and blowing stop signs.
He describes what drivers see while going through the stop signs. “You look at a highway that you’ve already focused on for the past three to five seconds and as you approach the intersection, they’re just continuing,” said Dean. “They’re not coming to that stop and looking both ways.”
The community knows there’s an issue, and want it solved now. “With the recent fatality of a young teenage girl, that was kind of a final straw and it’s time to put into action to make this stretch of highway in Wood County much safer,” said Dean.
“We’re a family that doesn’t give up so we will fight this as far as we need to,” said Turner. The Wood County board passed unanimously to build an overpass on this intersection. Now it’s in the hands of the state of Wisconsin to move forward on the project before more lives may be lost.
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