3 DIE IN TRAFFIC MISHAPS IN AREA

Traffic accidents have claimed three lives in the Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois area during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

The holiday counting period began at 6 p.m. Wednesday and runs until midnight tonight.

One traffic fatality was reported in Mississippi County near Charleston early Saturday. A crash in Southern Illinois, south of Marion, left two dead and three with serious injuries about 10 a.m. Saturday.

Kyle Brandon Cope, 22, of Jefferson City and formerly of Bertrand, was killed in the one-car Mississippi County accident.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said his vehicle left a county road three miles north of Charleston on Route N at about 2:30 a.m., striking a caution sign and overturning. he died a few hours later after being flown to a hospital in Cape Girardeau.

Jason P. Forest, 23, of Charleston, a passenger in the vehicle, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Missouri Delta Hospital in Sikeston. A condition report was not available from the hospital late Saturday night.

A head-on collision south of Marion killed two people and left three with serious injuries, according to the Illinois State Patrol.

Killed in the crash, which occurred on Highway 37, were Scott A. Gibbs, 32, driver of one of the cars, and Laurie Homan Gibbs, 26, of Marion. Mrs. Gibbs was formerly from Cobden.

Injured and reported in critical condition were McKenzie Homan, 4, who is in Marion Memorial Hospital, and Madeline Homan, 2, who is in St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. The two children were passengers in the Gibbs vehicle. Kelly Lena Maxine, 78, of Marion, driver of the other vehicles, was reported in serious condition in a St. Louis hospital.