Five Fatalities on Pierce County Roads Over the Weekend

It was a dangerous weekend on roads in Pierce County as four area people-including a Roberts resident-lost their lives in three separate traffic crashes.

In a one-vehicle accident Friday night, 31-year-old Brian D. O'Keefe, a resident of Roberts, was killed, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, which was notified of the crash about 9:44 p.m.

Mark R. Anderson, 51, of Ellsworth, died as a result of losing control of his vehicle and entering the ditch at about 2:48 a.m. Sunday.

In another accident, Alice Tiedke, 63, and her passenger, Arnold Tiedke, died of injuries received when their vehicle crossed the center line of US 10 about two miles west of Plum City and collided with another vehicle about 1:00 p.m.

The Sheriff's Department said that the first accident happened when a pickup truck went out of control and flipped about two miles southwest of Spring Valley near the intersection of 290th Street and 730th Avenue. Another man in the vehicle, Ryan N. Peterson and O'Keefe were both ejected from the truck. O'Keefe was taken to Baldwin Area Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Peterson was taken by air ambulance to Regions Medical Center in St. Paul with undetermined injuries. The report did not say who was driving the pickup and the crash remains under investigation.

Anderson was northbound on 810th Street about two miles west of Ellsworth when he lost control of his vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

In the crash that killed Alice and Arnold Tiedke, their vehicle collided with a vehicle driven by Trisha Nelson, 28, of Plum City. She was transported to Region's Medical Center in St. Paul. Her passengers, Ashley Blue, 8, of Plum City, and Aaron Nelson, 2, of Plum City, were also hospitalized at area hospitals with injuries that were not specified.