UPDATED, 12:35 p.m.

TOWN AND COUNTRY -- Members of a northeast Missouri Amish community traveling to a family funeral in Tennessee are among the victims of Tuesday's horrific crash on Highway 40, when a tractor-trailer plowed into the back of the van they were riding in.

One Amish woman in the van -- and another man driving a 2004 Audi -- were killed, and 16 people were injured in the crash about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. Three people remain in critical condition this morning at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur.

A truck barrelled into a lane of stop-and-go traffic on eastbound Highway 40 just west of Interstate 270.

The Missouri Highway Patrol identified those killed as as: Charles K. Cason, 55, of Caseyville, and Lydia Miller, 55, of Canton.

Sixteen people -- ranging in age from 5 to 88 -- were injured. A total of 11 vehicles were involved.

The trucker, Jeffrey R. Knight, 49, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., was not injured. He was taken in for questioning. Investigators with the Highway Patrol will be meeting with prosecutors today to discuss their case. The patrol also is expected to release more details about what caused Knight to plow into traffic.

The driver of the tractor-trailer "basically ran over several vehicles," Sgt. Al Nothum of the Missouri Highway Patrol said at a news conference near the crash site. The semi stopped with a car lodged in front of it and left a trail of nine wrecked vehicles behind, at least one pushed onto its side and others crushed beyond recognition.

The trucker could not be reached for comment.

Lydia Miller, who worked as a midwife and lived on a farm with her husband in Canton, was among seven people from northeast Missouri in a 1991 Plymouth Voyager van. The van was driven by Gaylen Lovelady, 60, of Hunnewell, Mo.

Two other people riding in that van remained in critical condition this morning at St. John's. They are Miller's sister-in-law Susan Borntreger, 52, of Canton, Mo.; and Alvin Mast, 88, of Kahoka, Mo.

Also in critical condition at St. John's today was Mark S. Tiburzi, 52, of St. Peters. Tiburzi was driving a 2007 Toyota Camry.

Lovelady, driving the Voyager van, was hired by the Amish to transport them to a funeral Wednesday in Tennessee for Lydia Miller's aunt, said Elizabeth Huber, who was ferrying Amish relatives to the hospital in St. Louis County today.

The Old Order Amish travel by horse and buggy, but they hire drivers to go by automobile if they need to travel far, said Elizabeth Huber, a Mennonite from Knox City, Mo., who knows many of the victims. Huber's father drove several Amish, including a son of Lydia Miller, to St. Louis County on Tuesday night. This morning, Huber was hired to take several more, including relatives of the Borntregers, to the hospital in her 15-passenger van.

In a hospital waiting room at St. John's, several relatives of the survivors waited anxiously. Alvin Mast, the 88-year-old man who was critically injured, was on life support this morning, said his granddaughter, Lydia Eicher, 32, of Kahoka, Mo. Doctors were waiting for his children to arrive today before deciding the next step.

Lydia Eicher was not in the van with the Amish travelers Tuesday, but her mother, Anna Eicher, 58, was. Anna Eicher was listed in satisfactory condition today.

"She's badly bruised but has no broken bones that they know of," Lydia Eicher said of her mother. "It hurts to breathe a lot, so they took x-rays trying to figure out what's going on."

Anna Eicher had remained conscious throughout, and told her daughter and husband about the crash. She recounted how it all began: with the van getting caught in rush-hour traffic as they got in the far right lane of eastbound Highway 40, trying to hook up with southbound Interstate 270 on their way to Tennessee.

"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, face down with one leg over the front seat. Rescuers had to cut the vehicle apart to rescue her.

Anna Eicher's husband, Henry Eicher, said his wife had wanted to go to Tennessee with the others because the funeral was for a longtime friend who, as a midwife, had delivered the Eicher children in Bowling Green, Mo.

Henry Eicher said the family is trying to cope with the sad news.

"We just take it as it comes," Henry Eicher said.

The pileup happened between Interstate 270 and Mason Road, just east of the Missouri Highway Patrol's Troop C headquarters.

Relatives of Charles "Keith" Cason, the Caseyville man who died, were reached at his home today, but they declined to talk to a reporter.

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."


kbell@post-dispatch.com I 314-340-8115



OUR EARLIER STORY:

Horrific crash on Hwy. 40 kills 2, injures 13

By Greg Jonsson and Leah Thorsen
Of the Post-Dispatch

St. Louis County — Wendy Wright was stuck in traffic Tuesday on Highway 40 when she looked in her rearview mirror.

She saw a tractor-trailer "plowing through cars." She wanted to get away, but there was nowhere to go. That's the last thing she remembers before waking and seeing the debris and shattered glass.

Wright, of St. Louis, was one of 16 people hurt in a catastrophic crash that left two people dead when the tractor-trailer barrelled into a lane of stop-and-go traffic on eastbound Highway 40 just west of Interstate 270.

The driver of the tractor-trailer "basically ran over several vehicles," Sgt. Al Nothum of the Missouri Highway Patrol said at a news conference near the crash site. The semi stopped with a car lodged in front of it and left a trail of nine wrecked vehicles behind, at least one pushed onto its side and others crushed beyond recognition.

The 3:45 p.m. crash closed the eastbound lanes and some of the westbound lanes for several hours and snarled traffic.

Nothum said authorities "have a very good idea" of what took place before the crash and why it happened, but said it wouldn't be prudent to disclose the likely cause until the investigation was finished. He said authorities would meet today with prosecutors to discuss possible charges.

Nothum said he did not believe drugs or alcohol played a role in the accident but said routine tests would be conducted on the truck's driver.

The driver, Jeffrey R. Knight, 49, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., who works for Holmes Transportation, was not injured. He was questioned at the Highway Patrol headquarters in west St. Louis County for several hours Tuesday.

Employees at the Missouri Department of Transportation's traffic command center in nearby Town and Country witnessed Tuesday's accident on traffic camera monitors but said the crash was not taped, said Bruce Pettus, an incident management coordinator for MoDOT.

Shortly after 7 p.m., tow trucks began hauling away wreckage from the scene. The eastbound lanes of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) reopened about 8:45 p.m.

A five-mile stretch of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) to the east of I-270 has been closed for reconstruction but Pettus said the roadwork was not a contributing factor. Nothum said the traffic was not out of the ordinary.

"It was backed up like it's always backed up at that time," Nothum said.

Two years ago, the driver of a tractor-trailer lost control of his vehicle at almost the same spot on Highway 40, crashing through the median and into oncoming traffic. One person was killed in that eight-vehicle crash.

Eight of the crash victims were treated Tuesday at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, said Dr. Dennis Keithly, who is in charge of the emergency room.

He said the condition of three of the patients was critical, two were serious, two were satisfactory and one was treated and released. He had no information on the patients' identities.

Once the hospital learned of the accident, which was little more than a mile away, it activated a command post to coordinate staff, Keithly said.

About 30 doctors and nurses from the hospital came to help. "We're busy on a daily basis so when you have something like this it's challenging," he said.

Other victims were taken to Missouri Baptist Medical Center, also near the crash.

Witnesses to the crash said there was little warning before the tractor-trailer began hitting other vehicles.

Frank Steinhoff, 27, said he was driving next to the semi, which he estimated was going about 75 mph. The truck didn't slow as it approached the stopped traffic, he said.

"He kept going and hitting cars," said Steinhoff, who was driving to his home in South County after finishing work at the parks department in Chesterfield.

One of the those cars spun around and struck Steinhoff's Ford Taurus, but he was able to walk away with just a bruised knee.

"I'm really lucky," he said.

It was a sentiment that Wright shared. She suffered bruising and soreness in her neck and chest and her right big toe was bandaged as she left St. John's Mercy Medical Center four hours after the crash.

"The only thing that saved my life was a seat belt," she said.

Her fiancé, Kenneth Bell, said he was lucky, too. "This is half my world here," he said as he and Wright left the hospital.

lthorsen@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8126
gjonsson@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8253

Ken Leiser of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.