Four killed in weather-related accidents

ST. LOUIS -- A St. Charles County teenager was killed Thursday in a two-car accident authorities called weather-related, bringing to at least four the number of Missouri traffic deaths linked to the season's first snowstorm.

An 18-year-old woman from O'Fallon, Mo., was a rider in a car that slid off Route N, swerved back onto the road and was hit broadside about 8 a.m. by an oncoming pickup truck, Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Jon Parrish said. He said there were considerable amounts of ice on the road in that area.

That car's driver, a 16-year-old girl also from O'Fallon, and the pickup truck's driver, 39-year-old Russell Freymuth of Wentzville, were taken to separate St. Louis-area hospitals, Parrish said.

The dead woman's name and that of the car's driver were not immediately released.

Three deaths -- two of them near St. Louis -- on Wednesday were attributed to a storm that dusted some stretches of Missouri with snow while dumping up to 10 inches in the Missouri Ozarks before moving off to the east.

Terry McNew, 43, of Fletcher was killed in Jefferson County about 5:45 a.m. Wednesday. The highway patrol said he got out of his vehicle on a county road to help another motorist and was killed when another car spun out of control and hit him.

Robin Tipton, 35, of Troy, was killed about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday when her car left U.S. 61 at Route P, striking a highway sign and two other cars, one of them already off the road and unoccupied.

James Lee, 68, of Waverly, Va., died Wednesday when his van slid on an icy Interstate 44 bridge near Mount Vernon in southwest Missouri and hit a semi rig's trailer.

Another vehicle struck debris from the accident, though Lee was the only person injured, the patrol said.