MISSOULA – Authorities say 12 people died in eight separate crashes on Montana highways over a five-day stretch during Thanksgiving week.
The Missoulian reports the holiday fatalities that were counted beginning Wednesday raised the state’s total to 161 this year, fewer than last year’s 173 recorded through the same period.
The 2017 year-end total of 186 deaths was the fewest since 1989.
Montana Highway Patrol says two people were killed after a train struck their pickup east of Wolf Point, marking the start of the carnage Wednesday.
A North Dakota couple and their two young daughters were all killed after their car veered off a roadway east of Billings on Thanksgiving Day.
The deadly stretch was capped Sunday when a 14-year-old Ronan girl died after a crash that injured four other children.