Poplar Bluff woman paralyzed after accident

A Poplar Bluff, Missouri, woman is paralyzed after her car reportedly was struck by a truck leaving Brick's Off Road Park, where less than three hours later, another woman was killed during an all-terrain vehicle crash.

At 5:45 p.m., Lori S. Garner, 50, was driving a 2010 Kia Optima north on Highway F, according to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, when another driver ran a stop sign and hit her car.

The other driver, Jeremy S. Sykes, 34, of Dyersburg, Tennessee, was in a 2007 Chevrolet pickup that was heading east on County Road 484.

Sykes failed to stop his truck at a stop sign and drove into the path of Garner's car, the highway patrol reported.

Sykes' truck was "pulling a trailer with five ATVs; he had been to Brick's," said patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott, Troop E's public information officer.

Sykes and his passenger, Becky M. Farrow, 46, of Dyersburg, apparently were among thousands who flocked to Brick's for its Trucks Gone Wild event.

When asked whether Sykes was intoxicated, Parrott said: "The investigation is still continuing, along with a reconstruction (of events)."

Garner, Sykes and Farrow suffered serious injuries and were taken to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. Garner subsequently was taken to

St. Louis University Hospital.

Tapp said Garner's spinal cord was severed around the base of her neck.

"She's paralyzed from the neck down, but she's breathing on her own," said Lori Tapp, a relative by marriage, who described the situation as "not good."

After troopers cleared the scene, Parrott said, they "went into Brick's and worked the ATV crash" that killed a Gordonville woman about 9:15 p.m.

Mark A. Drury, 22, of Scott City was driving a 1992 Polaris ATV south when he failed to negotiate a curve on one of the trails running through the Brick's property.

That caused his ATV to overturn, according to a crash report. Drury and his 20-year-old passenger, Marissa S. Hill of Gordonville, were thrown from the vehicle, and Hill later was pronounced dead.