A state prisoner from Licking escaped serious injury in an accident in a highway work zone that killed two Winona residents Thursday, the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Dead are Shelly D. Blunkall, 33; and Timothy J. Blunkall, 35, of Winona, whose vehicle was struck head-on by a trailer-truck unit two miles east of Mountain View on U.S. 60.
The patrol said a commercial vehicle driven by a Tennessee man, Eugene E. Toivonen, 64, of White House, Tenn., had slowed for a pedestrian in a MoDOT work zone. His vehicle was struck in the rear by a 1985 Kenworth operated by Keneth D. Shomaker, 51, of Winona, which crossed over the centerline and struck the Blunkall’s vehicle.
Shomaker’s tractor-trailer unit lost its load after striking a bridge wall and jack-knifing, and it struck Andrew L. Gilmore, 24, of the South Central Correctional Center.
Gilmore, who was standing on the side of the roadway, sustained minor injuries and was transported to the medical unit at the Licking prison. Neither truck driver was injured. The Blunkalls were not wearing seat belts, the patrol said.