Road washout leads to fatal crash in Wisconsin

LANSING, Iowa (AP) — Iowa and Wisconsin authorities have closed access to a Mississippi River bridge because of a roadway washout on the Wisconsin side that led to a fatal crash.

Crawford County (Wisconsin) Sheriff Dale McCullick says another driver witnessed the washout and the accident around 4:20 a.m. Tuesday on Iowa Highway 82, which runs to the Black Hawk Bridge over to Lansing, Iowa. The victim's body was recovered in his vehicle around 8:30 a.m. He was identified as 59-year-old James Walleser, who lived in Lansing.

McCullick says Walleser's vehicle plunged into the washout chasm and then into river channel water east of the bridge.

Motorists who want to cross the river can go north to La Crescent, Minnesota, opposite La Crosse, Wisconsin, or south to Marquette, Iowa, opposite Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

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