PARMA WOMAN HOSPITALIZED FOLLOWING CAR-TRUCK ACCIDENT

MOREHOUSE -- A Parma woman was in intensive care at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau after the car she was riding in was hit by a truck near Morehouse.

Karen Rainey, 28, had possible spinal injuries, said her father, McKinley Rainey. He said doctors wouldn't know the extent of her injuries for a few days.

Rainey and her 5-year-old daughter Crystal were passengers in a car driven by Timmy Thornton of Poplar Bluff that was headed west on Route 114 two miles west of Morehouse. Thornton, 26, who tried to drive his car across U.S. Highway 60, drove into the path of a tractor-trailer driven by Donald Bratton, 38, of Carterville, Ill., said Greg Hill of the Missouri Highway Patrol

Bratton was unhurt. Ambulances took Crystal and Thornton to Missouri Delta Community Hospital in Sikeston where they were treated and released.

The truck lost more than 50 gallons of diesel fuel, and workers from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources had to clean it up, Hill said.