Investigators Sunday ruled out a tire blowout as a cause to last week’s Interstate Highway 55 crash that killed 10 people, and the lone van survivor–critically injured but perhaps the best link to learning what triggered the crash–responded to sound and touch for the first time (this paragraph as published has been corrected in this text).
Shawanda Cross and 10 other people were in a Salvation Army van Friday heading to Downstate prisons to visit friends and relatives when the van spun out of control, crossed a grassy median and was hit broadside by a semi-tractor trailer. The driver of the semi-tractor trailer, Nicholas J. LaLuna was treated for minor injuries (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
On Sunday, investigators from the Illinois State Police and the National Transportation Safety Board continued the task of using witness accounts, accident scene evidence and examinations of both vehicles to reconstruct what happened.
But Cross’ account of the events leading up to the crash is vital to determining the cause, State Police Capt. Kevin Shaughnessy said. Hospital officials told police it may take two weeks for Cross to be well enough to talk to investigators.
“That is information that we’d consider to be crucial, whatever input she can give us,” Shaughnessy said.
Cross’ family gathered at her bedside Sunday at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood as the 24-year-old mother continued her recovery from an amputated leg and severe hip injuries. Unconscious since the accident and heavily sedated, Cross squeezed her cousin Genise Waters’ hand Sunday when Waters asked if she was cold.
When Waters asked Cross if she could hear her call her name, Cross tried to nod her head.
“She’s so swollen, she doesn’t even look anything like herself,” Waters said. “I could only identify her by her nails and tattoo.”
The Salvation Army van takes relatives and friends of prisoners to prisons in Pontiac and Dwight Wednesdays through Sundays. The van’s driver, Garneal T. Matthews, was a Salvation Army employee and a deacon at a South Side church who, friends said, once was an inmate himself and had overcome a life of drugs and crime.
Witnesses have told investigators that Matthews, 44, appeared to be driving at the same speed as southbound traffic around him at the time of the accident, Shaughnessy said.
Matthews made what appeared to be a normal lane change from the right to left lane just before the van went onto the shoulder and out of control, Shaughnessy said witnesses recounted.
Four of the van’s passengers were ejected from the vehicle before the truck struck it. Witnesses told police one of those passengers was struck by another semi-tractor trailer, though Shaughnessy said investigators had not been able to substantiate those accounts. Some witnesses said the passing truck did not stop; others said it did.
About 50 people have called police claiming to have information about the crash, Shaughnessy said. Only a handful were deemed credible.
Investigators with the state police and the NTSB, which is involved because the crash involved a commercial vehicle, are looking at what role weather played.
The pavement was slick from morning rain and snow, Shaughnessy said. Other motorists who drove that stretch of road said they did not encounter any icy patches, he said.
Lack of road salt also didn’t appear to be an issue, Shaughnessy said. The Illinois Department of Transportation began salting and plowing the highway at 7 a.m. and had cleared that stretch of road three times before the 9:48 a.m. crash.
Investigators weren’t able to determine how fast Matthews was driving because the slick conditions eliminated the potential for skid marks needed to estimate a vehicle’s speed, Shaughnessy said.
In a Will County Highway Department garage in Joliet, investigators Sunday began painstakingly disassembling the mangled body of the 15-seat, 2000 Dodge van to look into mechanical issues, such as braking and steering. A visual check of the van’s tires showed no evidence of a blowout.
Investigators also returned to the crash scene to take measurements and photographs for the reconstruction, Shaughnessy said.
An ecumenical service for victims of the crash will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at First Baptist Congregational Church, 1613 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago.
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Killed along with Matthews were: Betty J. Allen, 38; Miyuki M. Cannon, 34; Terria T. Harrell, 23; Rosie L. Harris, 53; Jill Henry, 49; LaTanya P. Jackson; 16; Rev. Ralph J. Johnson, 73; Tongula M. Overstreet, 31; and Juan A. Ramos, 74. All were from Chicago.
Also Monday, counselors will be available at the Illinois State Police’s District 5 office in Lockport to help the rescue workers cope with what they saw as they tried to extricate bodies from the wreckage.