18-year-old killed in one-car crash Thursday morning

An 18-year-old Cape Girardeau woman was killed in a single-vehicle collision Thursday morning 5 miles north of Cape Girardeau on Highway 177.

Zandra D. Thomas was driving a 2005 Ford Taurus with Vernon C. Morgan, 22, of Cape Girardeau as a passenger about 6:45 a.m. on Highway 177, according to a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report written by trooper R.W. Eakins.

The Taurus ran off the right side of the roadway, began to slide and struck trees, Eakins wrote. It was raining when the vehicle went off the road.

East Cape Girardeau County firefighters responded to the scene about 7 a.m. and extricated Thomas and Morgan from the vehicle, East County assistant chief Kelly Allen said.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton pronounced Thomas dead at the scene at 7:23 a.m. Thursday, according to the crash report.

Cape Girardeau County Private Ambulance transported Morgan to Saint Francis Medical Center, Eakins wrote. Eakins listed Morgan’s injuries as minor.

There have been 63 fatal accidents in 2016 for Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E, which covers counties from Cape Girardeau south to the Arkansas border. There have been nine fatal accidents in Cape Girardeau County, involving five Cape Girardeau residents, two Jackson residents, a man from Advance, Missouri, and a man from Dexter, Missouri.

Pertinent address:

Highway 177, Cape Girardeau, Mo.