EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A woman died and a man was rushed to the hospital after the car they were in crashed into an Illinois Department of Transportation dump truck on Interstate 64 Tuesday afternoon.
According to a press release from the Illinois State Police, 23-year-old Thailand Brooks, of Fairview Heights, died at the scene of the crash and the 22-year-old man driving the car she was in was airlifted to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. The driver of the IDOT dump truck, a 64-year-old man, suffered minor injuries.
The release said the crash happened at around 2:55 p.m. in the westbound lanes of I-64 near the 25th Street exit in East St. Louis. Three IDOT trucks were stopped on the highway to clear debris from the roadway, two of which had arrows directing traffic to move over to the left.
The driver of a 2012 Nissan Altima was in the right lane of the highway at around 2:55 when he tried to avoid the trucks. He passed the first truck — which was parked on the right shoulder — by driving in the right lane. The second truck was in the right lane, so the driver swerved onto the shoulder. The passenger side of his car hit the median. The car then spun and slammed passenger-side first into the back of the IDOT truck.
An IDOT worker was outside of the truck picking up debris at the time of the crash and was not injured. The driver of the truck suffered minor injuries.
Brooks was declared dead on the scene of the crash.
All westbound lanes of the highway were closed for an investigation. Both cars were towed away by about 6:50 p.m., and the highway was reopened at around 7:50 p.m.
