New Year's Day crash leads to death, arrest

A single-vehicle roll-over crash on Rodeo Drive outside of Harlem Wednesday left one 30-year-old woman dead and a 22-year-old man in police custody.

The crash occurred at 4:14 a.m. Wednesday and the woman died later that day.

Montana Highway Patrol reported that it is the second death resulting from a vehicle crash in the state in 2020.

The names of the driver and the woman have not been released at this time. 

Alcohol and speed are both suspected in the crash, drugs are not. The road conditions were reported as being wet and icy.

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Kade Hill said the woman was transported to Fort Belknap Indian Health Services then Northern Montana Hospital before she was flown to Great Falls. She was declared dead at 2:37 p.m. at a Great Falls hospital.

Hill added that Fort Belknap Tribal Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the case.

The Montana Highway Patrol narrative says the 22-year-old man was driving an Arca ATV and turned right from Coming Day Street on to Rodeo Drive at a high rate of speed when the ATV hit a patch of ice and he lost control.

He overcorrected, oversteered and rolled the ATV on Rodeo Drive before it came to rest.

Both the man and woman were thrown from the ATV. The man sustained minor injuries and the female passenger hit her head on the pavement, causing a head injury that led to her death.

Both the driver and the passenger were not wearing helmets at the time of the crash.