REALITY CHECK FOR ALL OF US!

Hope you guys don't think this is too gross...I guess maybe I'm using it as a sort of "shock treatment"...but this kind of thing just makes my heart sink, and reminds me all too often how short, precious, and beautiful life is, and how quickly and horribly, it can be swept away. You see something so horrible, and you can't help but wonder what was going through the minds of those that were involved, and what horror it had to cause in their last moments. It is also a BIG reminder that we should live everyday to our fullest...that we should never wait to appologize, or tell those we love, how precious they are to us, that life is too short for fighting and bickering among each other, and we should never just take for granted that there is always tomorrow. Well, people...there isn't always a tomorrow. That's why we have to be ready today!

Much love,
Lev
(this happened about 5 miles from my house.)

Towards the upper left, you will see Boone Country Fairgrouds...we are 1 mile North of there....down towards the bottom of the map, St. Charles Road, is what is known as "Lake of the Woods exit". It was just past that exit, about where you see the "highway 40 sign"...traveling west, that the accident occured.

PLEASE drive carefully!!!

THERE ARE LOTS OF PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU!

The links to the articles are too long, and will not post here, so the articles are included below.

Two die in wreck on I-70
By JANESE HEAVIN of the Tribune’s staff
Published Friday, April 28, 2006
G.J. McCarthy photo

Columbia firefighters walk past the wreckage of a three-vehicle collision today on Interstate 70 near the Lake of the Woods exit. The accident involved a tractor-trailer, a small passenger car and a van. At least two deaths were reported at the scene.
A three-vehicle crash this morning on Interstate 70 in east Columbia left two people dead and blocked both lanes of westbound traffic for four hours.
One victim was identified as John Ferkle of St. Peters.

G.J. McCarthy photo

Boone Hospital Center paramedic Bruce Groteweil comforts the unidentified driver of the tractor-trailer after the accident. A fire official said the truck was identified as belonging to B&C Trucking of La Plata.
The accident occurred about 9:21 a.m. just west of the Lake of the Woods exit. Investigators said it appeared the crash occurred after two passenger vehicles and a tractor-trailer became entangled.
One vehicle, a red Chevrolet with Nebraska license plates, appeared to have been rear-ended before landing in a ravine north of the roadway, said Battalion Chief Steve Sapp of the Columbia Fire Department.
The driver was killed, and a passenger was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, Sapp said. Neither victim was identified.
Ferkle was driving a Dodge van belonging to Ace Electric Lab Systems in St. Louis. The van, which appeared to have struck the back of the car, came to rest in the roadway entangled in the front of a tractor-trailer belonging to B&C Trucking out of La Plata, Sapp said. It was unclear which impact occurred first.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, who was not identified, was uninjured, Sapp said.
Reached by phone this morning, Ace Electric Lab Systems owner David Luetkemeyer said he was unaware of the accident and did not know the identity of the driver. He said the van likely was being driven by a company serviceman en route to Columbia.
Drivers of vehicles near the scene said they didn’t see exactly what happened but that the B&C Trucking vehicle seemed to swerve abruptly before hitting the van. Two drivers said they believed the truck driver had been speeding and swerving for several miles before the accident occurred.
"He was driving crazy," said Jerry Metcalf, the driver of a box truck stopped a few cars behind the accident. "He about run me off the road about two or three miles back. He was driving nutty as heck."
Another driver said he, too, believed the driver of the truck was driving dangerously. Ashley Parks, a Columbia College student from Williamsburg, said she barely stopped in time to miss the vehicle in front of her, which had stopped to avoid striking the B&C truck. She didn’t see the accident but "heard a big, loud bang."
Police are talking to potential witnesses, Sapp said. Aerial photos also might be used to determine what happened.
Reach Janese Heavin at (573) 815-1705 or

jheavin@tribmail.com.

Crash victims were bearers of good news

By SARA AGNEW of the Tribune’s staff
Published

Saturday, April 29, 2006

After a week of testing at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Kirt Card was finally going home with good news. Doctors had determined that the 56-year-old from Lincoln, Neb., suffering from a chronic progressive lung disease, was a candidate for a lung transplant. Card and his wife, Cheryl, were eager to get home and celebrate their renewed hope for a longer life together.
Their dream ended yesterday morning on Interstate 70 in east Columbia.
Cheryl Card, 54, was among two people killed shortly after 9:15 a.m. in a four-vehicle crash in the westbound lane just west of the Lake of the Woods exit. The other victim was identified as John Ferkel, 40, of St. Peters, who was driving a van for Ace Electric Lab Systems in St. Louis.
Kirt Card was taken to University Hospital, where he was in serious condition last night.
When news of the accident reached Lincoln yesterday, friends of the couple were devastated. Cheryl Card worked as a food service manager at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her husband is employed with the University of Nebraska Press.
"Cheryl was a wonderful person - three grown daughters and two grandchildren," a university colleague, Kathy Baehr, wrote in an e-mail. "She is very well known on the UNL campus and highly regarded. Kirt was struggling with this horrible illness, and a transplant was his only hope."
Columbia police said in a news release that the accident began when a tractor without a trailer, driven by Carl West, 61, of Novinger failed to stop for a line of traffic that had slowed for road construction.
Police said West rear-ended the vehicle driven by Cheryl Card. The couple’s car then collided with the back of Ferkel’s van before catapulting down a steep embankment.
Ferkel’s van consequently was smashed underneath the semi of a tractor-trailer driven by Robert Montgomery, 45, of Lakewood, Ohio.
Neither West nor Montgomery suffered physical injury. But Columbia fire Battalion Chief Steven Sapp said one truck driver was taken to a hospital for "severe emotional distress."
"It was one of the five worst accidents I’ve ever seen," Sapp said.
The accident shut down the westbound lane of I-70 for four-and-a-half hours.
Police Officer Scott Sergent said that it’s not clear why West did not stop his truck trailer and that the investigation is focusing on whether West’s vehicle malfunctioned. No summonses had been issued as of last night.
Ace Electric Lab Systems owner David Luetkemeyer said Ferkel was a "longtime No. 1 service guy" for the company. He leaves behind a wife and 9-year-old daughter.
Reach Sara Agnew at (573) 815-1717 or sagnew@tribmail.com.