A 41-year-old Roberts man died Friday morning after his car left West Warren Street near South Division Street and slammed into a tree. Emergency crews found him not breathing when they arrived, and efforts to revive him failed at the scene.
The man has been identified as Matthew S. Drinkwine of Roberts, according to the Hudson Star-Observer. He was driving a 2018 Kia Sportage eastbound when the vehicle left the roadway in a stretch posted with a 25 mph speed limit, according to WQOW, which reported that the St. Croix County Emergency Communication Center received a call around 7:09 a.m. about the crash.
Authorities said Drinkwine was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. After he was pulled from the vehicle and found not breathing, responders performed lifesaving measures, but those efforts were unsuccessful. The crash remains under investigation, the Star-Observer's report notes.
Multiple Agencies Responded to the Scene
Roberts Rescue, Roberts Fire, United Fire and Rescue, and the St. Croix County Medical Examiner all assisted the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office at the scene, per the same account. The heavy response underscores how seriously local agencies treated the single-vehicle wreck on a residential street with a relatively low posted speed limit.
Fifth Fatal Crash in St. Croix County This Year
Drinkwine's death marks the fifth traffic fatality recorded in St. Croix County in 2026, the station's report states. It comes roughly a month after a fatal crash in Hudson Township, where a person was found lying in the roadway in the 500 block of CTH N early on October 4; that adult male victim was pronounced dead at the scene and, at the time the sheriff's office issued its release, had not yet been identified, according to DrydenWire. That incident was reported as the county's fourth traffic fatality of the year, and a 20-year-old New Richmond woman identified as the driver was taken into custody pending formal charges, though she was not injured.
The county has also seen other fatal crashes this year near Roberts. A 48-year-old Baldwin man died after a two-vehicle crash on I-94 westbound near Roberts on Aug. 12, according to WQOW. That crash, which happened at 7:12 a.m. at milepost 13, involved a westbound Chevrolet Silverado that struck a Chevrolet Colorado, sending it off the road and into several trees; it remains under investigation by the Wisconsin State Patrol.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation notes that its county-by-county fatality figures for 2025 and 2026 are preliminary and reflect crashes reported to its Crash Records Unit as of the date published, unlike the finalized totals for 2021 through 2024. No further details about what caused Friday's crash in Roberts have been released.
