TROY, IL – One person is killed and six others are hurt after a wrong way crash overnight on I-70 not far from Troy, Illinois. It all unfolded just after midnight on I-70 west at the 16 mile marker near Route 4.
Illinois State Police Trooper Calvin Dye tells us a Ford truck was going the wrong way east in the westbound lanes of I-70 when it slammed head-on into a Toyota Sequoia SUV. Trooper Dye says there were two people in the wrong way truck and five in the Toyota SUV.
The wrong way driver, a 25-year-old man from Festus, was thrown from the car and was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger in the truck, a 37-year-old from Bowling Green, Missouri, was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
The five people in the Toyota were from Ohio. Four are still hospitalized also in serious condition- one has been treated and released.
The crash scene wasn’t far from the I270 split with I-55 and I-70.
Dye says the truck actually was first spotted going the wrong way on I-270 then he continued going the wrong way onto I-70. Dye says this is the third wrong way head on crash so far this year in the general metro east area- two of them have been fatal. Dye says several cars swerved to avoid the wrong way driver before the crash.
The highway in that area was completely shutdown for some time overnight while crews investigated the wreck.