Steve Apps / Capital Newspapers
Quadruplets were born to Rosa Balleza and Hector Salazar on Dec. 21, 2001. The family was in a traffic crash Saturday that claimed the life of one of the children. The other three siblings, all 7 years old, survived.

A 7-year-old boy who died in a Beaver Dam car crash Saturday was one in a set of quadruplets, Dodge County officials confirmed Sunday.

The other three siblings survived the rollover crash.

Many crashes were reported in the area, including a multicar incident on the Columbia-Sauk county border Sunday morning.

The quadruplets were born at Meriter Hospital in Madison on Dec. 8, 2001.

The babies, three boys and a girl, were delivered two and a half months early and spent their first weeks in Meriter's newborn intensive-care nursery.

They were thought to be the first set of quads born in Madison.

Originally from Mexico, parents Hector Salazar and Rosa Balleza had moved to Beaver Dam before Balleza became pregnant with the quads.

According to a 2001 article in the Milwaukee Catholic Herald, Salazar worked at a Beaver Dam flour mill but did not have health insurance, so the town's three Catholic churches rallied to raise $7,000 to help the couple with medical expenses.

Jared Salazar, the quadruplet who was killed Saturday night, was thrown from the SUV he was in. Dodge County sheriff's officials said the vehicle, driven by his father, overturned on Highway 151 near Highway S in the town of Calamus, just northeast of Columbus, after spinning out on the icy road. The northbound SUV slid through the median and came to rest in the southbound lanes, where is it was struck by a car heading south.

The driver of the southbound car, Daniel Dempsey, 50, of Dixon, Ill., was taken to Beaver Dam Hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Jared's three siblings - Axel, Maria and Jesus Salazar - and their mother also were treated at the hospital for nonlife-threatening injuries, deputies said.

Police said driving too fast for conditions was a factor in the crash, and failure to use safety restraints was a factor in the injuries.

The crash is being investigated.

A light freezing rain wreaked havoc on area roads overnight Saturday as numerous slideoffs lined state highways with vehicles.

The crashes started late Saturday, then tapered off during the early hours of Sunday. But Lance Thomas, spokesman for the Wisconsin State Patrol, said reports of slideoffs and rollovers began to increase Sunday morning.

"I don't know if people are driving too fast or if the roads are especially icy," Thomas said.

One accident, on the westbound lanes of Interstate 39/90/94 near the border of Sauk and Columbia counties, happened at about 6:50 a.m. Sunday.

A vehicle rolled over, then two other vehicles rolled over shortly afterward. Other cars approaching the scene slid off the road. At least a half-dozen vehicles were involved, Thomas said.

It was unclear if anyone was injured.

An hour later, state troopers had moved on to several other crashes, one of which caused a minor injury.

"We can't keep up," a State Patrol dispatcher, who didn't want to be named, said.

She blamed excessive speed for many of the accidents.

"The major thing is people need to slow down," she said.

Drivers reported dozens of slideoffs throughout the night, with dozens of vehicles, some of them on their roofs and sides, lining the interstate between Madison and Wausau, and more road closures from crashes and slideoffs south of Madison in Rock County.

"The salt is working on the highways, but a lot of side roads still have glare ice," Lt. Trace Frost of the Dodge County Sheriff's Department said. "Cars are not getting any traction. They can't get up hills and just start sliding sideways."