1 killed, 7 hurt in crash after cars stop to help driver

BELOIT— Authorities say one person was killed and seven others were injured when a semitrailer struck three cars on a highway in southern Wisconsin after people stopped to help a woman accused of driving drunk.

The Wisconsin State Patrol says the 20-year-old Janesville woman crashed her Ford Taurus into a guardrail Saturday night on Interstate 39/90 near Beloit. The car was disabled on the highway. Drivers of two other vehicles stopped to help.

According to the state patrol, a semitrailer smashed into the Taurus and the other vehicles. A 27-year-old Lake Geneva woman in one of the other vehicles was killed, while two boys in the backseat suffered life-threatening injuries. The driver of that car was also hurt, as were three Deerfield residents in the third vehicle.

The Janesville woman was arrested and had non-life-threatening injuries.