There was more traffic than usual driving by the Elmores’ home in Illinois’s farming heartland last Friday night. An earlier crash on nearby I-70 had diverted cars and trucks onto the single-lane highway abutting their driveway while the family was out of town – but their longtime friend and housemate, Kenneth Bryan, had just returned home with his young son, Walker, 10, and daughter, Rosie, 7.
Driving along US-40 that night were a myriad of motorists who probably never would have been there if not for the diversion. Four University of Missouri freshmen were travelling to a swim meet against Ohio State. The Rev. Dan J. Smith, a Missouri pastor, was returning home from a football game in Illinois with a friend. Vasile Cricovan, a 31-year-old Moldovan immigrant living in Ohio, was driving his truck along the same stretch of road. And another truck driver navigated a tanker carrying 7,500 gallons of anhydrous ammonia.
