MANKATO — A 21-year-old Mankato woman was airlifted to Rochester and four other women were hospitalized locally following a collision between two vehicles and a box truck on Highway 22 north of Mankato Tuesday afternoon.
Sitra Kedir Guluma suffered life-threatening injuries from the 1:49 p.m. crash and was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. Three other women from Mankato and one from North Mankato were hospitalized in Mankato and St. Peter with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
Guluma was driving south on Highway 22 in a 2013 Honda Civic when it and two other southbound vehicles — a 2019 Ford Escape and a 2018 Chevy Express G3500 — collided near Le Sueur County Road 2 midway between Mankato and Kasota.
Three passenger’s in the Civic — Solyana Tibebu Bekele, 20, of Mankato; Nebiyat Temesgen Belay, 21, of Mankato; and Ruth Girma Kebede, 20, of Mankato — were transported to the Mankato hospital.
The driver of the Escape — Sherry Jewel Trullinger, 60, of North Mankato — was taken to River’s Edge Hospital in St. Peter.
Jack Michael Paczkowski, 27 of Waseca, who was driving the Chevy box truck, was not injured.
All involved were wearing seatbelts and airbags deployed in the passenger vehicles. The road was dry at the time of the crash, and alcohol was not a factor, according to the Patrol.
Along with the Mayo 1 air ambulance and the State Patrol, first responders included ambulances from Mankato, North Mankato and St. Peter, fire departments from Kasota and Mankato, and sheriff’s deputies from Le Sueur and Blue Earth counties.