Authorities name 3 German women killed in Wisconsin crash

SPARTA, Wis. — Wisconsin authorities have released the names of three young German women killed in a highway crash last weekend.

The State Patrol identifies the victims as driver Laura Margaret Prechtel and Melina Sofia Orfanidis, both 20 years old, and 22-year-old Christine Damer. Their hometowns were not released.

Authorities say the women were killed when their rental car struck a deer and was then rear-ended by a tractor trailer. The collision happened Sunday night on Interstate 90 near Sparta, which is in western Wisconsin between Milwaukee and Minneapolis. The agency says the women slowed down after striking the deer and that the semi slammed into their car, pushing it into a ditch. The truck overturned.

The 46-year-old Missouri man who was driving the semi was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.