2-year-old dies in Bayfield County car accident; 3 others suffer life-threatening injuries

A 2-year-old child from Bayfield was killed in a car accident where three others received life-threatening injuries.

Four people, including three children, were ejected from a vehicle Monday afternoon after the Chevy Blazer they were riding in left Wisconsin Highway 13 and rolled just north of Washburn, the Bayfield County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Mariah Gordon, 2, was killed; Carter Gordon, 6, and Myley Gordon, 4, both of Washburn, and Erica Gonzalez, 15, of Bayfield, received life-threatening injuries. The driver, Chelsea Cadotte, 23, of Bayfield, had non-life-threatening injuries. No one was wearing a seatbelt.

All four of those ejected later were flown to a Duluth hospital, Chief Deputy Dan Clark said. Cadotte, who was referred to as the mother of at least some of the victims, wasn’t ejected. She went to a hospital in Duluth by ambulance.

A driver came upon the scene about 1 p.m. and called 911, Clark said. The car had been traveling south toward Washburn and was found overturned in a field on the east side of the highway.

Clark was on the scene where responders in seven ambulances — from Washburn, Ashland and Bayfield — were brought to deal with the injuries.

“It was a mess,” Clark said.

All five victims first were sent to Memorial Medical Center in Ashland. Helicopters then took victims two at a time to Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, Clark said.

The Wisconsin State Patrol is investigating the accident.

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