COLLISION ON CAPE BRIDGE INJURES THREE

A two-car, head-on collision closed the Mississippi River Bridge for more than an hour Saturday night.

Three people were transported by ambulance to Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Two males were traveling in one of the cars, coming from Illinois. The eastbound car carried a family, two females and one male.

Both males in the westbound car were transported to Southeast Missouri Hospital along with a female passenger in the eastbound vehicle.

No names or condition reports were available at press time.

The crash occurred on the Illinois side of the bridge. The call came into the Cape Girardeau Police Department at 7:26 p.m., but because of the location of the crash, the accident was worked by the Illinois State Patrol. The bridge reopened about an hour later.

Early on, officials were concerned by a fuel leak by one of the vehicles, but it was cleaned up.

Backed-up traffic stretched from the bridge west to Sprigg and beyond to William Street.

Many of those waiting leaned on their cars and trucks, or visited with others in the street about the delay.

At the front of the line was Shawn Merritt and his daughter, who were heading home for supper. They can see the bridge from the door of their East Cape Girardeau home. The pair had been waiting since just after the accident occurred. They had just left the grocery store with milk and bread.

Merritt, who works in Cape Girardeau, said he crosses the bridge eight times a day. He remembers waiting for four hours after a fatal truck and pickup truck accident last July.

He can't wait for the new bridge under construction to be completed.