Chaffee man killed in multi-vehicle crash near Cape Girardeau airport2

A three-vehicle accident near Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Thursday, Oct. 19, took the life of 21-year-old Benjamin M. Hastings of Chaffee, Missouri.

Missouri State Highway Patrol said a 2012 Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan traveling eastbound crossed the center line of Route AB a mile east of Blomeyer, Missouri. and approximately three miles west of the airport, and struck a concrete truck coming the other way at 12:55 p.m.

The impact caused the truck also to cross the center line, colliding with a 2018 Chevrolet Spark hatchback being driven eastbound by Hastings.

Hastings was pronounced dead at the scene by Cape Girardeau County Coroner Wavis Jordan.

The 76-year-old driver of the truck was uninjured but the Cruze motorist, 42-year-old Nathan S. Malone of Cape Girardeau, was treated for moderate injuries at Saint Francis Medical Center.

The fatality was the 57th highway death investigated by MSHP in Troop E in 2023.