{"id":23477,"date":"2026-03-23T05:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T10:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=23477"},"modified":"2026-03-23T05:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T10:45:51","slug":"cottonwood-county-crash-kills-5-on-highway-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/cottonwood-county-crash-kills-5-on-highway-71\/","title":{"rendered":"Cottonwood County Crash Kills 5 on Highway 71"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cottonwood County<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Five people died, and eight others were hurt in a head-on crash Friday afternoon on Highway 71 in southwest Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota State Patrol said a 2016 GMC Terrain was going north on Highway 71. A 2019 Ford Transit van was going south. The vehicles collided near 240th Street in Cottonwood County.<\/p>\n

Victims Identified<\/h2>\n

The driver of the SUV, 67-year-old Martin Nickolas Hanson of Springfield, died in the crash.<\/p>\n

Four passengers in the van also died. Authorities identified them as 49-year-old Kelly Christine Hargus of Jackson, 73-year-old Kathleen Ann Johnson of Jackson, 73-year-old Richard Warren Johnson of Jackson, and 47-year-old Lindsey Kay Rossow of Lakefield.<\/p>\n

The State Patrol said two other van passengers suffered life-threatening injuries. They were identified as 44-year-old Kassandra Lynn Ambrose of Jackson and 54-year-old Eric Charles Rossow of Lakefield.<\/p>\n

The van driver, 42-year-old Matthew Arthur Schultz of Lakefield, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Six other passengers also had non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

Crash Remains Under Investigation<\/h2>\n

Authorities have not yet said what caused the crash. The State Patrol is still investigating how the two vehicles came together on the highway.<\/p>\n

According to the state crash report, alcohol was not suspected. The report also said the crash happened shortly before 4:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

This was one of the deadliest traffic crashes in Minnesota in recent years. Local coverage said it was the state’s deadliest crash since 2023.<\/p>\n

Readers can review the official Minnesota State Patrol incident report<\/a> and the latest Minnesota crash updates<\/a>. Additional local coverage is available from KARE 11<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The crash left families across southern Minnesota grieving and searching for answers. More information is expected as the investigation moves forward.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Cottonwood
Cottonwood County Crash Kills 5 on Highway 71<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cottonwood County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 Five people died, and eight others were hurt in a head-on crash Friday afternoon on Highway 71 in southwest Minnesota. The Minnesota State Patrol said a 2016 GMC Terrain was going north on Highway 71. A 2019 Ford Transit van was going south. The vehicles collided near 240th Street in Cottonwood… Continue reading Cottonwood County Crash Kills 5 on Highway 71<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[16],"tags":[1791,15467,15464,768,998,6003,2297,9673,2793,12194,1013,15466,15465],"class_list":["post-23477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accidents","tag-accidents","tag-cottonwood","tag-cottonwood-county-crash","tag-county","tag-crash","tag-head-on-collision","tag-highway","tag-highway-71-crash","tag-kills","tag-minnesota-fatal-crash","tag-minnesota-state-patrol","tag-southwest-minnesota-crash","tag-windom-news","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23485,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23477\/revisions\/23485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}