Three people lost their lives in a fatal multiple-vehicle collision in Mattoon, Illinois, on Thursday afternoon, June 11th. The Coles County Coroner, Ed Schniers, identified one of the victims as Andrzed Popawa, 50, of Palm Coast, Florida.
The accident report released by the Illinois State Police revealed that the crash that killed the man happened as a result of an earlier collision on Interstate 57 south of the city. The first crash occurred at about 2:30 p.m., involving three tractor-trailers and two vehicles; the details were not released.
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An hour after, a vehicle failed to slow for the stopped traffic on the northbound lane of the interstate and rear-ended another car. It led to a chain of events involving four vehicles. The coroner said Popawa was driving a tractor-trailer, but there’s no information on whether he is the driver that failed to slow or one of the victims of that act.
The second dead victim was a passenger in one of the vehicles, and the third was a driver. Schniers said the victims died at the scene, and there’s no information of a fatality from the earlier accident. A 59-year-old man from Charleston appeared to survive, and medics took him to an undisclosed area hospital for treatment.
The accident report did not disclose the names of the other drivers involved in the collision, but one of them is from Newark, Illinois, and another from Richland, Indiana. The ISP and the coroner will release updates at a later time.
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