CAPE TEENAGER DIES; FRIEDAY CRASH LEAVES FOUR MORE INJURED

JACKSON -- A three-car, head-on collision south of Jackson Friday night killed a Cape Girardeau man and injured four other people, three of them 16-year-olds.

Michael Ervin, 23, a passenger in one of the vehicles that collided head-on, died in the accident. It occurred at 9:50 p.m., on Highway 25 two miles south of Jackson, said the Missouri Highway Patrol at Poplar Bluff.

An earlier, one-vehicle accident Friday night near Charleston also left a Centralia, Ill. man dead.

Seriously injured in the accident near Jackson were Donald Rohlfs, 16, of Jackson; Darrin Lacy, 23, of Cape Girardeau; and Timothy Maynard, 16, of Gordonville. Gordonville resident Lucas Riehl, 16, suffered minor injuries, said a patrol spokesperson.

All but Maynard were taken to St. Francis Medical Center, according to the patrol. But a spokesperson at St. Francis said she could find no record of Riehl.

A St. Francis spokesperson listed Rohlfs in good condition, and said he was expected to be moved Saturday from the hospital's critical care unit to a regular bed. He described Lacy as in satisfactory and stable condition in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Maynard was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital, where a spokesperson Saturday termed his condition serious but stable.

The spokesperson said Ervin was killed when the northbound 1981 Pontiac, in which he was a passenger, was hit head-on by a southbound 1969 Chevrolet driven by Rohlfs. The Pontiac was driven by Lacy.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter pronounced Ervin dead at the scene. The patrol spokesperson said neither Ervin nor Lacy were wearing seat belts when the accident happened.

The head-on collision occurred after Rohlfs apparently lost control of his car, said the patrol spokesperson. It skidded sideways into another southbound car, a 1980 Plymouth driven by Riehl, before crossing into the northbound lane. Carpenter said Rohlfs' vehicle struck the back end of the Riehl car.

The patrol's accident report did not mention alcohol as a factor in the accident.

Ervin's funeral will be held Monday at 1 p.m. at McCombs Funeral Chapel in Jackson. Ervin attended Southeast Missouri State University, where he was a senior majoring in physical education.

He was also active in bodybuilding and planned to compete this weekend in the 1991 MPC Ozark Bodybuilding Competition in Cape Girardeau, his first competition, said a spokesperson at the funeral home.

Killed in the accident near Charleston was William Thompson, 48. The accident happened three miles east of the city on Highway 60, said the patrol spokesperson.

Thompson lost control of the 1991 Mercury he was driving. The can then ran off the roadway and overturned several times. The accident ejected Thompson, who didn't have on his seat belt, the spokesperson said.

The accident took place at 8:10 p.m.