Carthage girl killed in crash in Vernon County

A seven-year-old Carthage girl was killed and four others were hurt when a driver lost control of his pickup on an icy bridge on Interstate 49 south of Nevada early Saturday morning.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said it was one of a number of accidents caused that happened when an episode of light freezing moisture fell overnight Saturday.
This accident happened at 7:07 a.m. in Vernon County, three miles south of Nevada.

Landry F. Heese, 7, was killed, while the driver, Daniel D. Castor, 33, and passengers Kip Castor, 7; Andrew M. Heese, 39; and Avery J. Heese, 10, were injured in the crash.
Daniel Castor and Andrew and Avery Beese were taken to Freeman West Hospital in Joplin, while Kip Castor was taken to Nevada Regional Hospital.

The patrol said the accident happened when Castor was driving north on I-49 when he lost control on an ice-covered roadway, went off the road and down an embankment and overturned.The patrol said Landry Heese was declared dead at the scene of the crash.The patrol also said Avery Heese was the only one in the vehicle using a seatbelt.
Landry Heese’s death was the sixth in Southwest Missouri this year.An El Dorado Springs woman also died in an accident involving an ice-covered road at 7:20 a.m. Saturday morning on Missouri Highway 32 west of Stockton in Cedar County.

Meteorologist Andy Foster, with the National Weather Service office in Springfield, said a line of light freezing rain, sleet and snow moved through the area around 7 a.m. on Saturday.

The moisture, combined with sub-freezing temperatures left a glaze of ice on the highways.