Fatal Car Accident in Downtown St. Louis Likely Caused by Speeding
On behalf of Brown & Crouppen, P.C. posted in Motor Vehicle Accident on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
A dramatic single-vehicle car accident that caused the death of the driver appears to have been caused by excessive speeding, according to witnesses. The driver’s identity was not immediately available, and police declined to say whether anyone else was inside the vehicle when it crashed and burst into flames near an Interstate 70 off-ramp on July 29.
The accident happened around 10:10 a.m. The vehicle, a gold-colored SUV, was travelling east on I-70. One witness who was also eastbound on I-70 at the time said that the SUV was going very fast and appeared to be out of control.
As the driver passed the exit at Laclede’s Landing and the Martin Luther King Bridge, the SUV collided with something on the interstate. The SUV was reportedly travelling so fast that the impact launched it into the air. It struck the underside of the elevated exit ramp and collided with a concrete support beam. The vehicle quickly caught fire as debris scattered around it, including stereo speakers and other pieces from the vehicle. A tourist visiting the Arch saw the tires fly off the SUV.
Two witnesses rushed to the SUV to try to help, but the flames were too strong. “There wasn’t anything you could do,” one of the witnesses said.
It was not immediately clear how many people were inside the vehicle at the time of the accident. St. Louis police confirmed that the driver, an adult, was killed. A car seat was visible at the scene, lying about 30 feet from the wreckage, but police would not say whether a child had been in the SUV.
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “One dead after speeding SUV crashes in downtown St. Louis,” Jennifer Mann, July 29, 2011