Deadly crashes take rural toll over weekend

Public safety officials say six people were killed in just over 24 hours in another rash of traffic fatalities across the state.

The string of accidents began Friday afternoon, when a 54-year-old man driving on a two-lane highway in Houston County was hit head-on by a semi-trailer truck that crossed the center line. Later that night in central Minnesota near Gilman, a woman drove her SUV into an oncoming big rig.

On Saturday night, an alleged drunk driver struck and killed a 34-year-old woman near Cloquet, Minn.

Five of the six fatal crashes were on rural roads.

"People think they're safer out on the rural roads, and that tends to be where over 70 percent of our crashes occur," said Donna Berger, traffic safety director at the Department of Public Safety.

The accidents Friday and Saturday follow an even deadlier three-day period in early April, when a dozen people were killed on Minnesota roads.

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