WINONA, Minn. – The State Patrol began a reconstruction of events that led to a brutal Highway 61 collision that injured three people Thursday evening. Police said that a maniac driver had been reported on Prairie Island Road and then on Riverview Drive before the collision. Riverview becomes Pelzer at a 90-degree curve and then rises over a railroad viaduct six blocks short of Highway 61. The route includes signal lights at Pelzer and Sixth Street and three blocks farther on at Pelzer and Highway 61. The speed limit on Riverview is 40 mph, on Pelzer 30. Police that they had received a report of a dark sedan speeding on Prairie Island Road and Riverview Drive shortly before the crash. The driver witnesses said, was passing other vehicles on the shoulder and nearly struck a semi-truck. The Pelzer-Riverview route carries heavy grain trucks to the Winona harbor and lots of commuter traffic as a shortcut to downtown Winona.
