Category Archives: MVA I-44

Tractor Trailer Pile Up in Snowstorm February 3rd, 2022

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The evening of the big snowstorm, Sullivan Fire was dispatched to a report of a tractor trailer pileup on eastbound I-44, two miles east of Sullivan. I drove out there, thinking it would be easier to photograph from the North Service Road, because by then law enforcement was re-routing eastbound traffic off the highway to the South Service Road and that could get dicey over there trying to avoid traffic in these conditions….

2022-0203 MVA Semis EB 44 at 227 MM

Luckily Bill Little was on the south side of the pileup and covering for the paper, had a better view of all 9 of the semi`s involved as well, many slid off 44 into the ditch all the way up and down the hill there. The scene is even with Juergens Trailer Court area, just up the hill from Winsel Creek.

2 Motor Vehicle Accidents in Front of Flying J Truckstop

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I was on my way home from work on January 24th and approaching the east overpass, when I noticed traffic slowing way down a quarter mile in front of me, over the top of the hill closer to the overpass. As I drove under the overpass, I noticed a semi stopped at the bottom of the onramp to westbound 44, and two Toyota pickups with damage, in the median between the ramp and North Service Road. I saw a lady standing outside a heavily damaged red Toyota pickup, looking like she was in pain, and a young couple standing outside a while Toyota pickup, located a little further behind the red pickup, they appeared to be shook up, so I turned my flashers on and pulled over right in front of the semi. I called Sullivan PD and told them there was a serious accident at the end of the onramp to wb I-44 from the East Overpass and advised them to respond EMS and Fire ASAP, told the dispatcher it appeared one of the pickups may have rolled over and came to rest against a MODOT sign with heavy damage. I hoofed it back to the scene to check on the folks involved in the accident…the semi driver was outside his truck and didn`t say anything to me so I walked over to check on the female driver of the red Toyota pickup….

It was a nice Tacoma, similar in style and color to mine…with heavy damage, appeared she may have rolled it and the sign prevented another roll of it, at any rate the support of the sign did stop her truck…she had pain in one arm and hand and she was holding her head with the other hand, so I let her know an ambulance was on the way and medics could check her out. I then walked back to check on the young couple, they were not hurt but a little shook up, said the semi collided with both their truck and the lady in the red truck, I let them know help was on the way as well…Sullivan PD officers pulled up about that time and came over to talk to them and me, I let them know what the young couple told me and Officer Reed went to talk to the semi driver to find out his story. EMS pulled up soon after, dropped a medic off to check on the young couple, while the driver, Stetson, relocated to the shoulder of westbound 44. I let Stetson know about the female driver of the red truck and the pain she was experiencing, and they went to check on her. She basically told them she didn`t need an ambulance at that point and they came back to talk to me…Sullivan Fire pulled up at that point in Pumper 854, Damon Sumpter and his crew, while Stetson and I were talking…when all of a sudden we heard brakes locking up on what sounded like a big truck, just east of the scene, and we looked down the interstate to the east and observed a big white grain truck leave the interstate at a rapid speed, climb the steep pitched embankment leading to the North Service Road, and go airborne…STRAIGHT UP into the air several feet high….before gravity kicked in and brought the truck back down to the ground on the drivers side, and the sudden impact with the ground partially ejected the driver from the cab of the truck as the truck came to a rest there at that point….

Stetson and his partner, along with the police officers, ran up there to check on the driver as Damon`s crew drove on up to block off the Service Road and assist…

I can safely say, we were all in total shock watching that unfold right in front of us…and amazingly, that driver must have had God watching out over him because shortly after medics transported him to the hospital, he got up and walked out of there. He and friends traveling behind him, were on their way to Golden City, Missouri, after just having purchased that grain truck a few hours before in Metro East Illinois, for their family farm business. Shortly after leaving the hospital, he picked up the truck and they continued on their journey home. I have a rockhound friend in Golden City, and talked to her that evening about it, she knows the family well, small town, and said they are a hard working family and well respected by folks down there. I was just glad it turned out well for them and the driver was ablel to walk away from it.

First Snowfall of 2022

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January this year was weird again….every week we had a warm day with temps in the upper 50`s, sometimes lower 60`s…but as we all know, lower 60`s in the winter time, especially surrounded by bitter cold days before and after, never feels like temps in the 60`s, so a waste of nice warm temps in my book. Back and forth, back and forth, all winter this year like that…even continuing into February, when we had colder temps, occasionally Mother Nature threw a curveball and gifted us with another wasted ” warm ” day, and a much bigger snowstorm I might add. Our first snowfall this year tho, was January 15th….

If I remember correctly, this one started out with sleet and freezing rain, then we had snow accumulate on top, making for very slick conditions under the snow…snow is safer to drive on than ice, but once road crews remove the snow, you are stuck dealing with the ice. Luckily, not many ventured out until the roads  were completely cleared off to pavement…highway travelers on I-44 were another story…one was pulling a pretty good sized camper trailer and they overturned from westbound lanes to the median between the North Service Road just east of Domino`s Pizza….

Fires 2022-0115 MVA Rollover Pickup & Camper WB 44 at Church St.AVI

Later in the evening tho, Sullivan Fire responded to a shed attached to a trailer fire, south of town…see next story…

 

Ice Storm Hits Area, Multiple MVA`s & Semi Pile Up EB I-44 at 226 MM February 10th

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I was sleeping good early Sunday morning, February 10th, 2019, had actually gone to bed early thinking I might need all the rest I could possibly get, since the forecast was for snow and possibly ice on the 10th…at 5:30 am the scanner started going nuts…St Clair Fire Department was dispatched to multiple vehicle accidents, most of them involving semi`s and some with drivers trapped inside their cabs….Sullivan Fire Department Pumper 854 was dispatched to assist St Clair with semi`s involved near the Rest Area, which is located at the 235 mile marker….soon after, from listening to radio traffic, St Clair ran out of ambulances and other departments to the east began sending some by mutual aid…not long after that, those departments started receiving multiple mva`s in their districts, one department was Boles Fire District in the Villa Ridge and Gray Summit areas.

Not long after 854 responded to assist St Clair, Sullivan Fire Department and EMS were dispatched to a report of a semi overturned EB I-44 at the 225 mile marker, possibly in front of Orschelin`s Store. As soon as I was dressed and after putting a couple of buckets of rocks in the bed of my truck, I headed in that direction…slowly…while my street Elmont Road, was in good shape thanks to our City Street Department working overnight, Fisher Street, a side street, was not..it was a sheet of ice, so I really had to creep down it. The South Service Road was a little better and I pulled into the parking lot by Subway and turned around, spotting Sullivan PD Sgt Rohrer in the suv parked on the Service Road by the Eastbound lanes of 44, next to a jack-knifed semi, the cab in the median and the trailer sticking out across both lanes of EB 44, totally blocking them…traffic was backed up west of the west overpass already….

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…on my way to that one, Fire and EMS were dispatched to a report of several semi`s overturned at the 225.8 mile marker, the east side of the East Overpass….so far Chief Eric was the only one on the scene from the Fire Department and it was sometime before other firefighters were able to arrive, EMS was on scene and going semi to semi checking for injuries, climbing up on the semi`s to check on them. 

I drove on down the Service Road and then turned left to go across the East Overpass…another Sullivan PD Officer had the top of the entrance ramp to EB I-44 blocked for Emergency Vehicles only, so I pulled over just past him and got out to take these photos….

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There were two semi`s overturned just past the city limit sign for Oak Grove Village, one overturned in the median, driver`s side down into the grass, another one on the right side was eastbound and then slid around in a complete 180 and flipped over on the driver`s side, coming to a stop in the grassy area between the eastbound lanes and entrance ramp to eastbound lanes, now facing west. In front of the overturned semi in the median, were three semi`s that simply slid off into the median, two were side by side facing east, the far forward semi cab was in the median while the trailer stuck out into eastbound lanes, causing some blockage.

Further east half a mile was another semi overturned off to the right of eastbound lanes halfway down the hill and another one the trailer slid off into the median with the cab remaining out in the eastbound lanes….

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Here is Chuck`s Towing personnel removing the first semi that slid off into the median at the 225 mile marker of eastbound I-44…

…the wrecker drivers shown were the only ones that were able to make it to work, so once they had this driver back up on the road, they moved east to work on getting the other trucks out of the way. Shortly after he pulled the semi in front of the Orschelin store, a car and a pickup truck collided with another semi a little further east, at the start of the exit ramp from EB I-44 to the East Overpass….

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It was around 10 am when Pumper 854 and their crew returned to the District from assisting St Clair, long morning I am sure down there as well. 

A Flurry of Winter Weather & String of MVA`s on EB I-44 Late January/Early February

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Eastbound I-44 was a hot spot for MVA`s from the end of January into early February in the Sullivan Fire District, starting with a blue car sliding off into the inner median at the 226 mile marker on January 31st around 10 am….

…then around 9 pm on February 1st, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to an mva at the 227 mile marker…what they found when they arrived was a parked car sitting on the shoulder was struck by an eastbound car, the striking car continued down the grassy median between the South Service Road and eastbound lanes and came to a stop next to the guardrail just prior to the Wensel Creek Bridge and Creek….

…here is the parked car that was struck on the shoulder and the impact drove it down into the ditch and turned it to face westbound, sheared the driver`s side rear tire and wheel off….

…and the striking car….

…and a blue pickup rollover MVA happened late afternoon on February 8th at the 229 mile marker near Stanton…firefighters and EMS personnel removed the driver from the overturned truck and he was airlifted out by Arch, who landed on the Stanton Overpass….

 

First Major Snowstorm of 2019…January 11th/12th…Got My Tacoma Back !!

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After a few little snow showers here and there with an inch or dusting sticking around a short time in November and December of 2018, two of those small snows arriving before Thanksgiving in early November, which I took as a sign of a bad winter ahead, we finally had a heavy snowstorm start in by mid afternoon of January 11th, and by the next morning, several inches were on the ground. I measured both my front yard at nearly a foot deep and my backyard about ten inches deep, so I am guessing the truth was somewhere between the two. 🙂

There was a vehicle accident with minor damage on the West Overpass around noon the day before on the 10th, a Franklin County Deputy struck by a small green pickup truck….

….luckily there were no injuries to either driver. I also was able to go get my Tacoma pickup the next morning before the snow arrived, after first returning the 2018 Ford four door rental pickup I had been driving….

…..while Tim Weiskopf and his crew repaired the damage to my truck….they did a great job on it !!  here are the before and after photos on it….

The Ford pickup was nice to drive, although it had so many bells and whistles on it, that I had to go by Jack Cuneio`s and have him come out and show me the basics on it…it was a comfy ride but it did not have four wheel drive so I was glad I got mine back before that big snow hit. 

The next afternoon, we had heavy snow falling….

I have to say, our city Street Department did a great job of keeping the Sullivan streets cleaned off after working all night long…I live on a main drag in town, and I can hear them going by with the plow down, even when I cannot see them, and let me tell ya, they were going up and down my street back and forth all night long. GREAT JOB GUYS !!   Sullivan Fire Department was called out during the snowstorm to assist Bourbon Fire Department  with a possible semi trailer on fire about half a mile east of Bourbon on WB I-44. I saw no fire when I arrived on the Service Road, but let me tell ya, my flash sure lit up the snowflakes falling and they were huge….

The next morning, after going to the grocery store, Onyx and I drove down to a horse farm owned by some friends of mine on the south side of town where I often take snow photos.

I had not been down there for a couple of years since we had not had any measurable snow in a couple of years, so I was a bit shocked to see that one of my favorite trees to photograph in the snow, providing a high contrast look at things…had been cut down some time back. Luckily for me, my friends have yet another tree off to the right that I was able to focus on instead…

Plus he has some pretty horses down there too….

…and after photographing them, I drove by the Harney Mansion which looked great in the snow, and photographed it as well….

 

 

Two MVA`s on EB I-44 At The 232 and 230 MM

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On December 21st, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a car into the back of a tractor trailer on Eastbound I-44 at the 232 mile marker. As emergency vehicles were responding to the call, a Missouri State Trooper became involved in a second vehicle accident at the median crossover just east of the Stanton Overpass, near the 230 mile marker. St Clair Fire Department responded to assist and were given the accident at the 232 mile marker to handle….

…when I arrived and turned around on the North Service Road near the old Kovac`s, I saw a tractor trailer stopped in the easbound passing lane and about a hundred feet behind it was a silver or gray colored car with heavy front end damage….behind the car was St Clair Ambulance and behind the Ambulance was St Clair Fire District`s smaller Rescue Squad Truck. I then drove down to the median crossover to check the second vehicle accident….

…and found Sullivan Fire Department, Sullivan EMS, and several State Troopers and County Officers on scene…a State Trooper car struck by another car at the scene…injuries unknown…St Clair Fire Department`s Chief Officer was assisting Sullivan FD as well….