An Illinois State Trooper was involved in a fatal auto accident on Illinois Interstate 64. Why the trooper racing to an accident when emergency vehicles were already leaving the scene?
That’s one of the questions being asked as part of a probe into the double-fatal crash on Nov. 23 in which a speeding patrol car crossed a median on Interstate 64 in Illinois and collided head-on with another car containing two sisters, Jessica Uhl, 18 and Kelli, 13. Both sisters died in the crash.
According to an article in the Belleville News-Democrat written by Mike Fitszgerald, Illinois State Police Trooper Matt Mitchell was more than 15 miles away from an accident in which a 16-year-old was briefly trapped in a flipped truck on Illinois 4. The teen was able to get out of the truck.
Two local police squad cars, two ambulances and a fire truck were on the scene six minutes before Mitchell was spotted in Fairview Heights racing to the scene. Eyewitnesses estimated that Mitchell was driving more than 100 mph as he attempted to reach the accident. The teen had already been loaded into the ambulance, which was on its way to a Belleville Hospital, when the trooper lost control of his vehicle and hit the sisters.
So far, the state police have refused to release information to the Belleville News-Democrat regarding the exact time Mitchell received the call for assistance and his exact location.
At high rates of speed, cars are difficult to control and the impact is likely to cause serious injury or even death. Even though the speeding car in this case was an emergency vehicle, it does not make it any less lethal.
