12-Vehicle Crash Near Edgewood due to Smoke Across the Roadway

12 vehicles were involved in a crash Monday during the noon hour on northbound I-57 in Effingham County.

State police say a grass fire started in the interstate median about two miles north of Edgewood for unknown reasons. Due to the wind direction, the smoke from the fire created zero visibility conditions for northbound traffic. At 12:22pm, a chain reaction crash involving the dozen vehicles occurred within the dense smoke.

One of our listeners, Ian Moore, notified us this morning that he might know the cause of the fire. Moore said he was headed south to Carbondale for St. Anthony's super-sectional baseball game and saw a pickup truck ahead of him pulling a cargo trailer. Moore said he saw parts of the trailer come loose and land in the median. He said one of the axles on the trailer was red hot and suggested that the parts that came off were also hot and caught the grass in the median on fire.

Regardless of the cause, the resulting crash injured six of the 12 drivers involved. The six, including one area resident, 66-year-old Linda Kelly of Edgewood, were taken to HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital in Effingham for treatment. Seven passengers were also injured and taken to St. Anthony's for treatment.

Drivers involved are from Defiance, Ohio; Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Indianapolis; Champaign, Marengo, Olympia Fields, Morris, Sandwich, and Schaumburg in Illinois; and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Northbound I-57 was closed for two hours. The crash remains under investigation.