TANKER TRUCK, CAR CRASH LEAVES TWO WOMEN DEAD

JACKSON - A mid-morning traffic accident here Wednesday claimed the lives of two St. Louis County women.

The accident, involving an empty gasoline tanker truck and a station wagon, occurred at 8:55 a.m. on Highway 72 at the West Lane intersection near Pioneer Orchard.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter identified the victims as Kimberly Lynn Frost and Sherree Donnell, both 21 and of Florissant.

Frost, the driver of the station wagon, was killed instantly, police said. Donnell, the only passenger in the vehicle, was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau and died at 2 p.m. as a result of massive head injuries, Carpenter said.

Investigating officer Larry Burrows said the Frost vehicle was attempting to cross Highway 72 at West Lane when her car was struck by the eastbound Kellett Oil Company gas tanker truck, driven by Steven Brown, 40, of Dexter.

Witnesses reported seeing the Frost car pull onto the highway in front of the oncoming truck, Burrows said. Both women were ejected from the car. "There was no obstruction to visibility," Burrows added.

Burrows said that when the truck driver hit his brakes in an effort to avoid the collision, the tanker truck jackknifed and ran off the road and into a nearby ditch. The trailer and tractor were heavily damaged.

A Jackson Police Department spokesman said Brown sustained minor injuries in the accident.

Traffic on the highway was stopped for over an hour. Jackson firefighters were called to stand by because of the possibility of an explosion of vapors inside the empty gasoline tanker.

The traffic fatalities were the first in Jackson since August 1985, when a woman was killed in a traffic accident on Highway 61 North at the city limits.

Carpenter said Frost's body was taken to the Rainey Funeral Home in Dexter, where funeral arrangements were pending Wednesday. He said the woman's family is originally from the Dexter area.

Donnell's body was taken to Shepard Funeral Home in St. Louis, he said.