Wisconsin Man Killed in U.P.

By Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Jan. 21–A 62-year-old Wisconsin man is dead following a Friday afternoon accident with a Cromwell man’s truck in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Michigan State Police reported.

Eugene Kelly Jr. of Three Lakes, Wis., was driving southbound on U.S. Highway 45, 10 miles north of Bruce Crossing, Mich., when a truck and trailer driven by Gary Hakamaki, 40, of Cromwell, swerved into his lane, according to the police report.

Hakamaki was northbound in his Ford F-250 pickup, towing four snowmobiles, when he attempted to pass another car in white-out conditions. The Michigan State Patrol reported that Hakamaki didn’t see a slowing vehicle ahead of him and swerved into the southbound lane to avoid hitting it. In doing so, he collided with the Kelly vehicle, according to Michigan State Police Sgt. Don Horn.

Kelly was pinned underneath the snowmobile trailer and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Bruce Crossing Fire Department.

Neither Hakamaki nor his 17-year-old son, who was also in the vehicle, suffered serious injury.

The accident remains under investigation.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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