Two people were killed when a wrong-way driver collided with an oncoming car in St. Francois County late Wednesday night, police say.
The wrong-way driver, Jeremy W. Hansell, was the only survivor, police say. Hansell, 31, of Bonne Terre, was arrested for driving while intoxicated and two counts of vehicular manslaughter, the Missouri Highway Patrol says.
The patrol identified the two who died as Rickey D. Mowery, 41, of Ironton, Mo., and Jackelin L. Rincon, 28, of Bonne Terre.
St. Francois County Coroner James Coplin said the wrong-way driver came onto Highway 67 from the Parkway Drive exit and traveled about a mile before the collision.
The patrol gave the following account of the crash:
At about 11 p.m. Wednesday, Hansell was going north in the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 67 when he collided with Mowery's car. The crash happened on Highway 67 at Missouri Highway 8 in Desloge.
Mowery, who was driving a 1991 Buick Park Avenue, was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:19 p.m. Wednesday. He was trapped in the vehicle and not wearing a seatbelt, Coplin said.
Rincon was a passenger in Hansell's vehicle, a 2003 Chevrolet Suburban, and had not been wearing a seatbelt, Coplin said. She was taken to a Bonne Terre hospital, where a doctor pronounced her dead at 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
Hansell was seriously injured in the crash. He was being treated at Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur.
St Louis Today
www.stltoday.com
Thursday, November 17, 2011 7:51 a.m.