5 killed, 5 injured after semi crash in southern Illinois spews ammonia cloud

Five people were killed and five were seriously injured after a truck overturned Friday night in southern Illinois, causing a toxic substance to leak from its cargo and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of area residents.

A semi carrying caustic anhydrous ammonia toppled in Teutopolis, about 110 miles east of St. Louis. The truck spilled more than half of its 7,500-gallon load, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Effingham County Coroner Kim Rhodes said the five dead included three from the same family — one adult and two children under 12. The other two were adult motorists from out of state. Additionally, five people were airlifted to hospitals, their conditions unknown.

Names of the victims were not released, nor would authorities discuss causes of death.

Although not strong, crews working overnight struggled against shifting wind.

“The wind changed three or four different times on us,” said Tim McMahon, chief of the Teutopolis Fire Protection District. “That’s another reason we got crews out in different places, reporting back on which way the wind’s going.”

About 500 residents within a one-mile radius of the crash site were evacuated.

The accident caused “a large plume cloud of anhydrous ammonia on the roadway that caused terribly dangerous air conditions in the northeast area of Teutopolis,” said Effingham County Sheriff Paul Kuhns. “Because of these conditions, the emergency responders had to wait. They had to mitigate the conditions before they could really get to work on it, and it was a fairly large area.”

At 4:50 p.m., a crash on I-70 east of Effingham, caused traffic to be rerouted to US Highway 40. Around 9:25 p.m., Illinois State Police were notified of an additional crash on US 40 a half mile east of Teutopolis involving multiple vehicles, including three semis, one that was leaking anhydrous ammonia.

A shelter was set up at a grade school in Effingham for those affected by the evacuation.





Mulitple first responder agencies stage in Teutopolis while working the multi-vehicle crash including a semi that spilled thousands of gallons of anhydrou ammonia. (Photo: WTWO via AP)