Lung transplant candidate survives crash that kills wife

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Kirt Card and his wife, Cheryl, were on their way home to Nebraska on Friday with good news after a week of testing at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Card, 56, from Lincoln, Neb., had been suffering from a chronic progressive lung disease. But doctors had determined that he was now a candidate for a lung transplant, renewing the Cards' hope for a longer life together.

That hope ended about 9:15 a.m. on Interstate 70 in east Columbia. Cheryl Card, 54, was one of two people killed in a four-vehicle crash in the westbound lane.

The other victim was identified as John Ferkel, 40, of St. Peters, who was driving a van. He left behind a wife and 9-year-old daughter.

Kirt Card was taken to University Hospital, where he was in serious condition Sunday.

Cheryl Card worked as a food service manager at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her husband is employed with the University of Nebraska Press.

"Cheryl was a wonderful person -- three grown daughters and two grandchildren," a university colleague, Kathy Baehr, said in an e-mail to the Columbia Daily Tribune. "She is very well known on the UNL campus and highly regarded. Kirt was struggling with this horrible illness, and a transplant was his only hope."

Columbia police said the accident began when a tractor without a trailer rear-ended the Cards' car, which had slowed for road construction.

The couple's car then collided with the back of Ferkel's van before heading down an embankment. The crash shut down the westbound lane of I-70 for four-and-a-half hours.

Columbia fire Battalion Chief Steven Sapp said one truck driver was taken to a hospital for "severe emotional distress."

"It was one of the five worst accidents I've ever seen," Sapp said.