NEW MADRID MAN KILLED IN CHAIN-REACTION ACCIDENT

A New Madrid man died Wednesday morning after the car he was driving started a chain reaction of three accidents.

A tractor-trailer struck Jeff Foster, 19, as he stood on the side of the road seven minutes after his car hit a utility pole near Bernie.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said that at 1:53 a.m., Foster was driving southbound on Highway 25 three miles north of Bernie when he lost control of his car on the wet pavement, struck the pole and knocked it across the highway. Neither Foster nor his two passengers sustained more than minor injuries in that accident.

Two minutes later, Charles Duncan, 59, of Bernie drove northbound on the same road into the guy wire from the utility pole. At 2 a.m., another tractor-trailer, this one driven by Lindle Bullinger, 62, of Rector, Ark., struck the guy wire, then veered off the roadway and struck Foster.