A driver was killed and three other people were injured in a head-on collision Friday evening in Chaska.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Martin Ballines Rios, 40, of Shakopee was driving south in the northbound lane of Audubon Road at Wildflower Lane shortly before 7:30 p.m. when he ran into a pickup truck heading north.

The driver and two passengers were injured in what the patrol described as “non life-threatening.”

Authorities released the identity Monday of the bicyclist who died in a hit-and-run collision over the weekend in Minneapolis, an avid cyclist who was on his way to sabbath worship.

Thomas E. Malloy, 61, of Minneapolis, was identified by the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office as the person who was hit Saturday morning by a pickup truck at E. Franklin Avenue and West River Parkway.

The driver left the scene but turned himself in a little more than nine hours later.

Malloy, a Messianic Jew, was about a third of the way into a 5-mile bike ride to sabbath observance at a house of worship in St. Paul when he was hit late Saturday morning, said nephew Michael Buller.

Buller said that when he was at the scene of the crash Sunday, he found his uncle’s kippah — also known as a yamulke — laying nearby.

“I was glad to find it,” said Buller. “He will be buried with it.”

Malloy “loved to ride his bike,” even though he owned a van, Buller said. “It was a beautiful day, an abnormally warm day [for a bike ride].”

Malloy apparently was crossing the intersection, heading east, when he was struck by the northbound pickup sometime around 11 a.m., police said. He lived about 1.5 miles west of where he was hit.

Police had asked for the public’s help in locating the truck and put out a description of the vehicle and its license plates. Just before 8:30 p.m., the driver turned himself in at police headquarters, police said. He had left the truck in north Minneapolis, and police recovered it.

The suspect, who remains in the Hennepin County jail, is a 27-year-old man from northeast Minneapolis. He has a history of trespassing, burglary, drug and traffic offenses, state court and motor-vehicle records show.

Convictions include disorderly conduct in Ramsey County in 2008, operating an off-highway motorcycle in Mille Lacs County in 2005, and second-degree assault in Hennepin County in 2001, when he was 17.

Buller expressed sympathy for the driver and his family, saying, “I honestly have no idea how hard it must be on his family at large. I hope they’ll be able to find peace, and I hope the best for him.

“My uncle lived a full life, and [the driver] has his whole life. . . . It’s not easy for either side.”

Two men were in an SUV that rolled into a ditch and crashed in south Washington County — the man with the seat belt has so far survived, while the unbelted driver did not.

The wreck occurred shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday on northbound Manning Avenue, just north of 70th Street, according to the State Patrol. Manning divides Cottage Grove and Denmark Township.

Dead at the scene was Christopher J. Fontaine, 26, of Hastings. The patrol said that Fontaine was not wearing his seat belt.

Fontaine’s passenger, Nicholas D. Peterson, 22, of Hastings, was in critical condition Friday at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Peterson did have on his seat belt, the patrol said.

In figures released Thursday, the state said that 44 percent of vehicle deaths from 2008-10 involved occupants who were not belted in. That figure for Washington County in those years was 32 percent.

Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said that this crash “demonstrates that your best chance of survival, obviously, is wearing a seat belt. We see crashes … quite frequently where the unbelted occupant dies and the ones belted often walk away unscathed.”

Seat belt compliance in Minnesota now stands at more than 90 percent, and Roeske said that “the education piece” is crucial to getting that figure to 100 percent. “You can’t enforce your way out of these problems.”

Roeske wishes those who don’t wear their seat belts would think about the “ones left to deal with all the issues” after a fatal crash.

“The heartache, the loss, the children, the parents, sisters and brothers losing siblings,” the lieutenant added. “Sometimes they don’t recognize the horrible situation they put their loved ones in. It’s a sad situation when it’s so easily avoidable.”

A three-vehicle crash in southern Minnesota killed the driver of a farm tractor who had been thrown into the path of a pickup truck, authorities said.

The wreck occurred at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday on County Road 27, west of New Ulm, the State Patrol said.

Killed was Alan V. Brandel, 58, of New Ulm.

According to the patrol:

The farm tractor, with no cab, was hit from behind by a Ford pickup truck while heading east. The impact threw Brandel to the road. A Nissan pickup heading in the same direction ran over Brandel.

The Ford pickup was driven by Glen R. Mathiowetz, 50, of Sleepy Eye, Minn. The Nissan pickup’s driver was Steven M. Asmus, 46, of New Ulm. Neither was hurt.

The patrol said alcohol did not play a role in the crash.

A huge crash involving 34 vehicles on a highway in southwestern England killed at least seven people and injured 51, British police said Saturday.

The crash on Friday night involved explosions, and cars and tractor trailers burning “literally to the ground,” Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Bangham told reporters. Police expect the death toll to rise and they fear they may find more bodies in the wreckage, Bangham said.

Video footage shown on British news channels showed large balls of fire consuming trucks, and billowing smoke at the scene.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collision on the M5 highway, but police said foggy conditions and wet road surfaces were partly to blame. Road accidents of this scale are rare in Britain, and rescuers have described the pile-up as one of the worst in living memory.

The affected section of the busy highway has been closed in both directions as police remove all vehicles for forensic examination. The highway will not be reopened until Sunday at the earliest, police said.

A man crossing a busy Maple Grove street was run over by a car and killed shortly before sunrise Friday, authorities said.

The accident occurred about 6:35 a.m. on County Road 30 near the intersection with Ranchview Lane, according to police.

Capt. Tracy Stille said his department was still trying to confirm the identity of the victim, who was crossing “close to an intersection, but not in the intersection” when the eastbound car hit him.

Police have determined that the man was walking to work at the time.

The motorist stopped immediately and cooperated with police. “He was pretty shaken up about it,” Stille said.

A Wisconsin motorist was sentenced Tuesday for being drunk when he killed three Twin Cities college students in a crash north of Madison last year.

Bradley R. Erickson, 32, of Madison, who pleaded no contest to three counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle, was sentenced in Dane County Court to 13 years in prison. He also will be on extended supervision for 15 years.

Killed were Marcus Johnson, 19, of Milwaukee; Elysia Rapp, 20, of Racine, Wis., and Wilfredo Ugarte, 23, of Puerto Rico. Johnson and Ugarte were University of Minnesota students.

Rapp, Johnson’s girlfriend, attended Century College in White Bear Lake.

Prosecutors say that shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2010, the victims’ car was pulled over on Interstate 39/90/94 in Burke with a flat tire, when a speeding Erickson crashed his car into theirs. A fourth person among the group of five was injured.

Erickson registered a blood-alcohol level 0.158 percent shortly after the crash, nearly twice the legal limit. Friends described the Iraq war veteran as using alcohol to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

One passenger, Carlos Rios, told investigators the group’s car was fully in the emergency lane near the median, when he saw Erickson driving “very fast” toward them. He said he shouted to the others before jumping over the median barrier.

Erickson slammed into the car, which was headed to Milwaukee from the Twin Cities.

Erickson told an investigator he didn’t see the victims’ car because he had gone around a semitrailer, when — the next thing he knew — “my airbags went off,” according to the criminal complaint.

The Owatonna Police Department is investigating a fatal accident involving a motor vehicle and pedestrian.

Owatonna Police responded to an accident at the intersection of 26th Street N.E. and 3rd Avenue N.E. early Friday morning.

Upon arrival, they discovered 63-year-old Craig Hemmingsen had been struck by a vehicle operated by 35-year-old Gregory Anderson.

Hemmingsen was taken from the scene and was pronounced dead at the Owatonna Hospital from injuries related to the accident.

Hemmingsen was walking northbound across 26th Street N.E. when he was struck by Anderson. Both men are from Owatonna.

The Owatonna PD, along with Minnesota State Patrol, are still investigating the crash.

A car ran over two road construction workers along the shoulder of Interstate 35W in Burnsville early Thursday afternoon, leaving one of the men dead and the other seriously injured, authorities said.

Traffic on northbound 35W, where the crash occurred, has been halted, while the southbound side was running slower than normal.

The crash happened shortly after 12:35 p.m. north of the County Road 42 exit, according to the State Patrol. Also closed is the ramp from County Road 42 to northbound 35W.

The 21-year-old driver of the car from Missouri was not hurt and was cooperarting with investigators, the patrol said. Authorities have yet to say why the car left the interstate.

According to the State Patrol:

The car veered to the right and struck the two contract employees as they did electrical work associated with expansion of the MnPASS carpool system.

One of the workers was dead at the scene. The other was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. Their identities have yet to be released.

The two were working for Egan Co. at the time, located in Brooklyn Park.

Egan Vice President Dawn Hofstrand said that her company has “a very good safety record. We’re just trying to get all of the information.”

A car with Missouri plates was off on the side of the road, with a white sheet on the ground nearby. Also nearby below the McAndrews Road overpass was a damaged road sign.

The fate of the driver was not immediately known.

The construction zone involves extension of the MnPASS carpool lanes.

The worker who was killed was employed by a private contractor, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The employer of the injured workers was not immediately known.

Two weeks ago, a car hit and slightly injured two construction workers in St. Paul on the ramp from southbound Hwy. 280 to westbound Interstate 94. The driver fled on foot and left behind two banged-up passengers and a loaded pistol.

Minnesota had more than 1,900 work zone crashes last year. That’s up from nearly 1,800 in 2009.