The father of truck driver Jeffrey R. Knight says his son is anguished over the Highway 40 carnage that authorities say started with him, leaving two people dead and 16 injured in a multiple-vehicle wreck.

"People are going to form their own opinions," Jack Knight said Wednesday in a telephone interview from the family's hometown of Muscle Shoals, Ala., "but this man is having a breakdown over this."

Jeffrey Knight, 49, who was unhurt, flew back to Alabama on Wednesday while police continue to investigate the accident and prosecutors consider criminal charges against him.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said that Knight had a clean driving record and that neither drugs nor alcohol appear to be involved. But at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, authorities say, Knight was inattentive and drove his 2005 Freightliner loaded with scrap aluminum into and over 10 vehicles backed up on eastbound Highway 40 (Interstate 64) just west of Interstate 270.

Two people — Lydia Miller, 55, of Canton, Mo., and Charles "Keith" Cason, 55, of Caseyville — were killed instantly.

Miller was in a van headed with fellow Amish from northeastern Missouri to Tennessee for a funeral of a friend.

Two people in that van were Miller's sister-in-law Susan Borntreger, 52, of Canton, whose condition was upgraded today to serious from critical, and Alvin Mast, 88, of Kahoka, Mo., who remains in critical condition.

Also in critical condition was Mark S. Tiburzi, 52, of St. Peters. His 2007 Toyota Camry was crushed. Six other people remained hospitalized with less serious injuries at St. John's.

Among them was Mast's 58-year-old daughter, Anna Eicher, who was listed in satisfactory condition. Her family was involved in an accident in September when a horse-drawn buggy was hit by a car in northeastern Missouri.

Eicher's son Jake was thrown from the buggy and suffered a broken neck. His wife, son and another child were killed.

"It's been a difficult year," Lydia Eicher, Anna's daughter, said at the hospital Wednesday. She said the wreck has been tough to take.

"But it's something we have to accept," said Lydia Eicher.

The driver of the van — a 1991 Plymouth Voyager — Gaylen Lovelady, 60, of Hunnewell, Mo., was treated at St. John's and released.

HIRED DRIVER

The Amish hired Lovelady to transport them to the funeral, said Elizabeth Huber, who was ferrying Amish relatives to the hospital Wednesday.

The Old Order Amish travel by horse and buggy, but they hire drivers to go by automobile if they need to travel far, said Huber, a Mennonite from Knox City, Mo., who knows many of the victims.

Lydia Eicher said her mother was badly bruised but did not appear to have any broken bones.

Anna Eicher had remained conscious throughout, and told her daughter and husband about the crash. It began with the van getting caught in rush-hour traffic as the driver got in the far right lane of eastbound Highway 40, trying to hook up with southbound Interstate 270.

"She was sitting there, and they stopped quick because of the vehicle in front of them had stopped pretty quick," Lydia Eicher said. "Then, all of the sudden, a bang, crash, they went flying and rolled over two or three times. The next thing she knew, she was on the bottom with a lot of people on top of her."

Anna Eicher was pinned inside the van, face down, with one leg over the front seat. Rescuers had to cut the vehicle apart to rescue her.

Collinsville resident Geff Clenney, who has been a friend to Cason for about 15 years, said he spoke to Cason on Tuesday, a few hours before the crash.

"Knowing Keith, it's like you knew him your whole life," Clenney said. "We'd see each other at wine tastings or other (functions in town). He was one of those people who never met a stranger."

Among those who escaped serious injury were Thomas and Melissa Garthwaite and their 5-year-old son, Owen, of Marion, Iowa. They were on their way to Mississippi to pick up a daughter who was staying with grandparents.

In a telephone interview, Thomas Garthwaite, 36, credited his wife, who was driving the 2001 Dodge Caravan, with saving the family from serious injury: "She looked in the rearview mirror and saw stuff flying through the air. It was coming at us. She swerved out of the way just enough, I think, to save us."

The truck hit the Garthwaites' van, destroying it. Melissa Garthwaite, 35, got the brunt of the family injuries — a bloody nose and a chipped tooth.

POSSIBLE CHARGES

Knight has been a truck driver for more than seven years, the last two with Holmes Transport Inc., a 27-rig company of 45 employees based in Florence, Ala.

Knight passed a random drug screening July 5, and a company-required driving records check June 31 showed he had no accidents in the past five years, Holmes Transport President Don Holmes said.

"He was an all-around solid driver," Holmes said. "He never had any problems. Never. No accidents. This is the first time he's been involved in any type of accident."

Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Al Nothum said Knight's record appeared clean and that he was properly licensed.

It will be a few weeks before toxicology reports are completed, but Nothum said investigators do not believe Knight was intoxicated, on drugs or sleeping at the time of the crash.

"Physical impairment was not a problem," Nothum said, declining to specify what may have distracted Knight. A reconstruction team of investigators was out on the highway Wednesday attempting to determine how fast the truck was traveling.

The patrol will work to complete a crash report in the coming days, Nothum said, and forward the report on to the St. Louis County prosecutor's office to review for possible charges against Knight.

Several people called the Highway Patrol on Wednesday to express their dismay that Knight was not immediately arrested, Nothum said.

"That's not how the system works," Nothum said.

Holmes Transport has been in business since 1993. Before Tuesday's crash, the company in the last two years had not been involved in any fatal crashes, and was involved in one injury accident, according to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

"Everyone is completely, completely saddened over what happened," Holmes said. "We don't have words to describe this. We just feel bad for the families."

Matthew Hathaway and Doug Moore of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

poconnell@post-dispatch.com | 314-863-2821