A 29-year-old New Ulm woman died early Wednesday when her Jeep collided head-on with a pickup truck on Highway 15 in Cottonwood Township, just south of New Ulm, leaving investigators still trying to determine which vehicle crossed the center line. Guadalupe Maria Miramontes was driving a 2016 Jeep Compass southbound when it struck a northbound 2019 Ford F-250 pickup truck around 5:31 a.m., killing her at the scene. The pickup's driver, a 21-year-old Fairmont man, survived with non-life-threatening injuries.
According to FOX 9, the crash occurred on southbound Highway 15 near mile marker 50, with both airbags deploying and both drivers wearing seat belts. State authorities have identified the pickup driver as Hunter David Grathwohl, who was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Road conditions were dry at the time, and alcohol was not suspected in connection with either driver.
Multi-Agency Response and an Unresolved Question
The New Ulm Fire Department, New Ulm Police Department, Brown County Sheriff's Office, and Allina Ambulance all responded to the crash scene, per the same account cited by FOX 9. The State Patrol's incident log, tracked under case number ICR 26201390 out of District 2200 in Mankato, places the collision at mile marker 50 near Searles, roughly five miles south of New Ulm, as reported by Ingstad Media.
KROC News reported that the collision happened head-on on the two-lane stretch of highway, though state patrol records do not currently indicate which vehicle crossed the center line, according to KROC News. Authorities have not released additional details about the circumstances leading up to the crash, leaving the cause unclear for now.
A Deadly Stretch With a Recent History
This is not the first fatal wreck on this section of Highway 15 in Cottonwood Township. On July 22, 2025, a car struck a vehicle stopped in a construction zone near 170th Street, killing Madelia residents Ladonna Mae Mikkelson, 75, and her husband Charles Keith Mikkelson, 83, according to Justice First Attorneys. That crash led to felony charges months later, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the teen charged in April, when Brown County prosecutors charged a 19-year-old Sioux Falls driver with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide after vehicle data indicated speeds over 90 mph and cellphone records showed text messaging near the time of impact.
Minnesota State Patrol's District 2200, headquartered in Mankato, oversees traffic enforcement and fatal crash reconstructions across a 10-county region of south-central Minnesota that includes Brown, Blue Earth, Martin, Watonwan, Nicollet, Le Sueur, Sibley, McLeod, Faribault, and Waseca counties, per the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Highway 15 itself is a 154-mile trunk route running from the Iowa border through Fairmont, Madelia, New Ulm, Hutchinson, and St. Cloud, serving as a key north-south corridor for commuter, agricultural, and freight traffic across the region.
Statewide Fatalities Down, But Rural Highways Still a Focus
Wednesday's crash comes as Minnesota has made broad progress reducing traffic deaths. The Minnesota Advisory Council on Traffic Safety reported in January that statewide fatalities dropped more than 20% in 2025 to 370 deaths, the first time annual deaths fell below 400 since 2019. Even so, preliminary data from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety shows 212 traffic fatalities recorded statewide so far in 2026 as of August 11.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has set a goal under its Toward Zero Deaths initiative to cut annual statewide roadway fatalities to no more than 225 by 2030, using what it calls a multi-layered Safe System Approach that combines engineering, education, emergency response, and law enforcement. Rural two-lane highways like Highway 15 remain a central focus of that effort, given the corridor's recent history of fatal crashes in Brown County.
