Elderly man, woman killed in Ixonia crash, two seriously injured

IXONIA --Two people were killed, and several others were injured after a pickup truck carrying two people slammed into the side of a Buick sedan carrying four people in Ixonia Sunday evening.

Officials say it happened on Highway 16 and North Street just after 6:00 p.m.

80-year-old Genevieve Matenaer of West Bend, and 81-year-old Gordon Gehring of Hartford died in the crash. Both were occupants of the Buick sedan. The Buick's driver, Norman Matenaer and another passenger, Shirley Gehring were transported to Froedtert Hospital with serious injuries. Matenaer and Gehring were taken to the hospital via Flight for Life.

"It appears that the Dodge Ram pickup truck was westbound on Highway 16. A (Buick) was stopped at the stop sign, and everything indicates at this point that the (Buick) failed to yield at the stop sign, and pulled out into the path of the oncoming pickup truck. As you can imagine, it's an impact that's pretty bad," Sgt. Leon Groshek with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department said.

Both occupants of the pickup truck were taken to Oconomowoc Hospital, and are expected to survive their injuries.



Carmen Ryan lives near the intersection where the crash occurred Sunday evening. She says it's not the first time there has been an accident in the area, and it's near an elementary school, which she says is concerning. "People are going 60 miles-an-hour down Highway 16, and you have to wait to cross there. There's no doubt about it - you need time there. There are a lot of children in the area, so caution is very important. There's not enough room to turn, and all of us neighbors have talked about that. (The intersection) could be improved," Ryan said.

Neighbors say there was a big polka event going on during the late afternoon Sunday at a nearby park, and there were a lot of cars coming and going because of that event. There's no word yet on whether the two people who died had attended that event.

Investigators say the driver of the pickup truck had the right-of-way, so he was not ticketed.