A state prisoner from Licking escaped serious injury in an accident at 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 that had been struck by another.
The patrol said a commercial vehicle driven by a Tennessee man, Eugene E. Toivonen, 64, of White House, 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 and struck Andrew L. Gilmore, 24, of the South Central Correctional Center. He sustained minor injuries and was transported to the medical unit at the Licking prison.