TOWN AND COUNTRY, MO : One dead, two injured in fiery crash on I-270 in Town and Country on Tuesday, January 17th 2017
Town and Country, Missouri
A Warren County man was killed Tuesday and two people were seriously injured when a van hauling a trailer crashed and caught fire on Interstate 270 between Manchester and Clayton roads, police say.
Crews who rushed to the scene initially had a tough time sorting out how many vehicles were involved in the morning rush-hour crash.
A charred van was on its side. The back of a tractor-trailer was on fire. A sedan, a Bobcat loader and a small, upended trailer were in the wreckage and appeared to be sandwiched against the median.Authorities on the scene of a fatal crash involving a tractor-trailer and at least two other vehicles on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. Photo courtesy KTVI
Richard Matteson, 58, of the Truesdale area in Warren County, died in the wreck, said Cpl. Juston Wheetley of the Missouri Highway Patrol. Matteson was a passenger in the van, Wheetley said.
In all, Wheetley said, six people in four vehicles were involved in the crash, which took place at 8:25 a.m. Tuesday.
Wheetley gave the following account based on witnesses and evidence collected early in the police investigation:
A van hauling a trailer was in a middle lane, heading south on I-270. On the trailer was a Bobcat loader.
The driver of the van tried to merge into a left lane. Its trailer clipped a tow truck, then smashed into a passenger car, forcing the passenger car into the median. The van’s driver lost control, and the van overturned.
The driver of a tractor-trailer saw the collision and tried to avoid it, but the tractor-trailer ended up hitting the van and its trailer.
The van caught fire, and the flames spread to the back of the tractor-trailer.
The drivers of the van and the passenger car were seriously injured.
“It was just a very unfortunate chain of events,” Wheetley said.
The crash site was on the far left side of the southbound lanes, near the median.
Several southbound lanes and a northbound lane were closed, with some of them staying shut for much of the day.
From the debris scattered along the road, it appeared that the tractor-trailer was hauling boxes of peppers and other vegetables in a refrigerated trailer. West County EMS and Fire Protection District spokeswoman Sara Dayley said no hazardous materials were involved.
The crash was within the city limits of Town and Country, but that city’s police department said the Highway Patrol was handling the investigation.
Source :
One dead, two injured in fiery crash on I-270 in Town and Country