11-year-old killed, six injured in Perry County wreck

PERRY COUNTY, Mo. — Van Stephenson, 11, was killed Saturday morning in a single-vehicle wreck on northbound Interstate 55 south of Route M in Perry County, according to Perry County Coroner William Bohnert.

Six others were injured in the incident, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s online traffic crash report.

The incident took place around 7:25 a.m. when a 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan went off the left side of the road, hit an embankment and started overturning, the report stated. The highway patrol reported the vehicle stopped on its top in the median.

The report stated Stephenson was pronounced dead on scene by Bohnert.

Three of the occupants of the vehicle are listed in the report as having serious injuries. Two 6-year-olds, a boy and a girl, are listed as having minor injuries. And the male driver, 71-year-old Aubrey Sauls, is listed as having moderate injuries.

La Lita Stephenson, 47, and an 48-year-old man, also named Van Stephenson, both had serious injuries and were taken to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, according to the report. The report does not contain information as to the relation of those in the vehicle.

A male occupant with serious injuries, whose age was not reported, was airlifted to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Sauls and the two 6-year-olds were taken to Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville.

Four of the occupants, including 11-year-old Stephenson, did not have a “safety device” in the incident, according to the report. It is unknown whether the two 6-year-olds had safety devices. Sauls did have a safety device, the reported stated.

The report lists the six occupants of the vehicle as from Kansas City, Missouri, and the driver from Kansas City, Kansas.