Motorcyclist, ATV rider among three who died on area roadways

Three people are dead following separate accidents in the Brainerd lakes area this past weekend.

On Saturday, a St. Cloud woman was killed after the motorcycle she was driving collided with a vehicle on Highway 25 in Buckman.

Rhonda Jeanine Lykken, 48, was driving southbound on Highway 25 about 5:50 p.m. when she lost control of her vehicle, went across the center line and sideswiped another vehicle, said the State Patrol. Lykken's motorcycle then overturned, the State Patrol reported.

Two other motorcyclists riding with Lykken, Diane Hedlund, 41, St. Cloud, and Paul Hoeschen, 41, Cold Spring, crashed when trying to avoid Lykken's overturned motorcycle.

Lykken died at St. Cloud Hospital.

The driver of the vehicle which Lykken sideswiped, Roger Rauch, 43, Pierz, and his passenger weren't injured.

Hedlund and Hoeschen were transported to St. Cloud Hospital, where Sunday they were reported in fair condition.

On Sunday, one person was killed and another injured when the ATV they were riding on left the roadway and collided with a stand of trees.

The accident happened about 3 a.m. on Birch Lake Lane in Cass County, near Hackensack, the Cass County Sheriff's Department reported.

William J. Edie, 33, of Hackensack, died of injuries suffered in the crash. Rebecca Hoehne, 27, of Hackensack, was airlifted to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. Information on her condition was unavailable Sunday. The cause of the crash is being investigated. An autopsy on Edie is scheduled.

Also on Sunday, a 36-year-old Little Falls man died in a single-vehicle rollover near Hillman in Morrison County. The accident happened about 4:56 a.m., the Morrison County Sheriff's Department reported.

The sheriff's department reported Larry "Bumpy" Wilkinson and Ann Wilkinson, 38, Little Falls, were driving southbound on Partridge Road when they crossed the center line and struck a road approach, which caused the vehicle to roll over. Both Larry and Ann Wilkinson were ejected from the vehicle.

Larry Wilkinson was pronounced dead at the scene. Ann Wilkinson was transported to St. Cloud Hospital, where Sunday she was reported in serious condition.