Personal Injury Law

Gruesome Missouri Crash Involving Tractor-Trailer Kills Two; Injures 16 Others

By Ryan Bradley, Esq.

Photo from STLToday.com

Two people are dead and at least 16 others were injured in a horrific Missouri tractor-trailer crash involving 11 vehicles on Highway 40 this afternoon.

According to the highway patrol, a line of ten cars was stopped on the ramp from Highway 40 to I-270 because of congestion. A tractor-trailer, driven by Jeffrey Knight, 49, plowed through the line of stopped vehicles as it traveled eastbound on the highway.

Lydia Miller, 55, of Canton, Mo., and Charles Cason, 55, of Caseyville, Ill. were the two fatalities in this accident.

Of the other injuries, at least 8 were reported as serious by the officials on the scene. Among the more seriously injured were Susan and Levi Borntreger, 52 and 56, of Canton, Mo.; Gaylen Lovelady, 60, of Hunnewell, Mo.; David Jayne, 49, of Kirkwood, Mo.; and Mark Tiburzi, 52, of St. Peters, Mo. All of the injured were taken to St. John?s Hospital or Missouri Baptist.

An investigation into the accident, including an accident reconstruction, was being conducted at the scene, according to a St. Louis Post Dispatch report.

The report also says that authorities ?have a very good idea? of what took place before the accident, but won?t yet disclose that information. One official says that he doesn?t believe alcohol was involved and that the incident was witnessed, though not recorded, by MoDOT officials monitoring a traffic camera

Knight was being questioned by the highway patrol and will be subjected to routine drug and alcohol tests. According to a KSDK report, he is a driver for Holmes Transportation, which is a general freight shipping company based out of Alabama. They employ 27 drivers and ship all across the county. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says that Holmes drivers have received a satisfactory safety rating, though they have been involved in 3 non-fatal accidents in the last two years.

As more details emerge about the cause of this crash and the condition of the survivors, we will post them here.

KMOV has posted helicopter footage of the crash on KMOV.com.

For more information about the law surrounding trucking incidents, visit our website.

Full post as published by Missouri Accident Lawyer Blog on July 15, 2008 (boomark / email).