A 63-year-old Columbia man was killed yesterday morning in a head-on collision in Monroe County.
Gerald “Jerry” Lewis was pronounced dead at the scene of the three-vehicle collision on Highway 24 six miles east of Paris, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
The fatal wreck occurred at 8:25 a.m. yesterday when a westbound 2003 Chevrolet Impala crossed the centerline, hit an eastbound pickup truck and then continued in the eastbound lane, striking head-on a 1994 Ford Tempo that Lewis was driving, the highway patrol said. Lewis was wearing a seat belt, the patrol said.
Lewis had lived the past three years in Oak Towers, a public housing retirement community in central Columbia. He had served as a resident representative for the building and on the Columbia Housing Authority’s formal hearing panel, housing authority CEO Phil Steinhaus said.
“He didn’t have much, but he had just a fabulous attitude,” Steinhaus said. “We’re going to miss that guy. He was kind of everybody’s friend over here.”
Steinhaus said Lewis “always had a kind word and liked to talk a lot.”
As a veteran of the armed forces, he always wore a ball cap in support of veterans.
“Any time he met a fellow veteran, he always thanked him for his service,” Steinhaus said. “That was one of the things that really mattered to Jerry.”
Lewis had planned a trip to visit family, Steinhaus said, but he did not know why he was driving on Highway 24.
The highway patrol identified the driver of the Chevrolet as Patsy Rice, 44, of Palmyra. Rice suffered serious injuries and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Moberly. She was wearing a seat belt.
The driver of the pickup truck, Erica Keeling, 16, of Madison, was wearing a seat belt and was not injured, the highway patrol said.
Highway patrol Trooper Jason Mattingly said the collision likely would be attributed to driver inattention and there is no indication that alcohol or drug use was involved. A citation against Rice was pending, Mattingly said.
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http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/jul/22/monroe-county-crash-kills-columbia-motorist/#comments
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