SEPARATE I-55 CRASHES RESULT IN NINE INJURIES

Nine people were injured, one seriously, in two separate but related motor vehicle accidents that occurred early Tuesday afternoon in the northbound lane of Interstate 55.

The accidents occurred between the Diversion Channel bridge and the Highway 74/Dutchtown exit, at the south edge of Cape Girardeau.

The accidents forced authorities to close the northbound lane of the interstate, between Nash Road and the Dutchtown exit, for over two hours while traffic was re-routed over the southbound lane of the interstate.

Details of the accident are still under investigation, but Cape Girardeau police officers speculated faster moving traffic coming up a small hill at the south end of the Diversion Channel bridge was unable to see the slow-moving or stopped vehicles backed up from the first accident.

Eight of the injured were treated and released from Southeast Missouri Hospital. The other victim, Dorothy Nance, 61, of 226 S. Pacific, was listed in stable condition at the hospital Tuesday evening.

Police investigators believe the first accident, which occurred at 1:05 p.m., caused a slowdown and eventual backup of traffic in the northbound lane which led to the second accident at 1:30. That occurred on the elevated northbound lane of the interstate, just north of the Diversion Channel bridge.

Police said the first accident involved two cars, one driven by Melinda S. Kelpe, 19, of 1601 N. Spanish. She was treated and released. Nance was a passenger in the Kelpe car, police said.

The other driver, Barbara R. Anderson, 17, of Scott City, was not injured.

Three vehicles were involved in the second accident, police said. They included a car driven by Alfred C. Williams, 35, of Amite, La., a compact pickup truck driven by Robert W. Humber, 33, of Millington, Tenn., and a semi-truck, driven by Vernon Roberts, 65, of Moundville, Ala.

Williams and five passengers in the car, including three young children and two adult women, were treated for minor injuries and released, as was Roberts.

Investigators said at least 80 feet of metal guardrail and concrete curb on the east side of the elevated interstate was damaged when the semi-truck jack knifed while attempting to avoid striking the cars ahead. The truck tractor crashed halfway through the guardrail, but the truck stayed on the highway.

Ambulances from the Cape County Private Ambulance Service and the North Scott County Ambulance Service responded to the two accidents.

A spokesman for Cape County Private Ambulance Service said two ambulances responded to the first accident. Three Cape County ambulances and one from North Scott County responded to the second accident.

Cape Police Sgt. Carl Kinnison said while the injured and damaged vehicles were being removed, northbound interstate traffic, which at one time was reported to have been backed up from the Division Channel bridge back to near the Scott City exit, was re-routed over the Nash Road overpass to the southbound lane of the interstate.

Officers held southbound traffic near the Highway 74 exit at the south edge of Cape to allow the traffic to come north for five minute intervals; then southbound traffic was allowed to move while the northbound traffic was held at the Nash Road exit.