Less than week apart, 2 Silver Lake residents die in crashes on same highway

In less than a week, two Silver Lake residents have died in single-vehicle rollover crashes on Highway 7 in Hale Township.

According to a Minnesota State Patrol report, a Silver Lake man was driving a Jeep east on Highway 7 in Hale Township when the Jeep left the roadway and rolled at around 5:15 p.m. on Sunday.

Responders took the man, identified as 54-year-old Dean Nathaniel Christopherson, to Hutchinson Hospital, where he died.

The report stated he was not wearing his seat belt and alcohol was a factor in the crash.

Six days earlier, a Silver Lake woman died while driving west on the same highway in the same township.

As previously reported, 39-year-old Heather Louise Johnson of Silver Lake was driving a pickup truck on Highway 7 in Hale Township when the truck left the roadway and rolled.

Johnson died at the scene, according to responding agencies.

Responders at the scene noted the truck’s airbag did not deploy, and like Christopherson, she was reported to not have been wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. However, alcohol was not a factor in her death.