Three-vehicle wreck blankets road with corn

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- A three-vehicle accident before noon Friday injured motorists and scattered a 4-inch-deep layer of corn at the junction of Illinois highways 146 and 3.

The accident slowed traffic for over three hours and left three injured motorists and three damaged vehicles. The Illinois State Police said traffic was rerouted along an outer road for about three hours while Highway 3 was closed and cleared of spilled corn.

The corn was being hauled south on Highway 3 in a tractor-trailer driven by Donnie Johnson, 38, of McClure, Ill.

The state police said that Delmar R. Tribout, 79, of Tamms, Ill., driving a Ford sport utility vehicle east on Highway 146, had stopped at a stop sign at the junction known locally as the "Cape Y." As he turned onto Highway 3, he crossed in front of Johnson's tractor-trailer, which struck Tribout's SUV, then overturned onto a Chevrolet Lumina being driven by Milford C. Fluegge of Millersville, Mo., pinning Fluegge in the car and spilling bushels of corn and parts of the car over the road.

State police said that the three drivers suffered only minor injuries.

Witness Archie Busby of Tamms said he watched the accident from his northbound truck idling a few yards behind the Lumina.

Johnson lay conscious on the east side of the road receiving medical attention as emergency workers traipsed through an ankle-deep blanket of corn to cut the driver of the Lumina from the mangled vehicle. Fluegge was finally freed from the driver's seat of the car at 11:57 a.m. and wheeled to an ambulance. Johnson was also later taken from the scene by ambulance.

The roadway was reopened just before 3 p.m. after a wrecker removed the tractor-trailer. A small front-end loader, a backhoe and tractor carted the corn and debris off the highway. Workers then sprayed down the area, washing away the residual corn dust so traffic could continue.

Staff writer Linda Redeffer contributed to this report.

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137