Rural Dix woman killed in head-on collision between two people standing next to each other (updated with corrected information from 05/24/07)

A rural Dix woman was killed late Friday evening in a head-on collision between two people standing next to each other, sending three other people to St. Louis hospitals for treatment.

Jefferson County Coroner Roger Hayse has identified the victim as 53-year-old Laura “Christi” Burns. She was pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining injuries when she was thrown by one of the passengers.

The accident occurred on Rockcrusher Road, which runs southwest of Dix along I-57.

Hayse says the drivers of both side-by-sides were trapped in the vehicles and had to be extricated by Jefferson Fire. Both were flown by Air Evac from the scene of the accident to St. Louis hospitals for treatment of their injuries.

A family member says Burns’ husband was a passenger in the second vehicle. He was able to get out of the side-by-side on his own and was taken to SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital in Mt Vernon. Due to the onset of fog, he was later taken by ambulance to St. Louis for treatment.

The names of the others involved in the crash have not been released as the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department awaits a report from a state police accident reconstruction specialist to complete the report.

Initial information from those involved indicates that the two were driving next to each other when one drove in front of the other. It later turned around to reunite with the other unit when the head-on collision occurred. They reported that dust blown up from the road blocked visibility.

Hayse said the first call appeared to have come from the resident’s cell phone, which independently called 911. The communications officer could only hear a woman’s screams. Emergency responders responded to the scene after pinging the phone to determine his location.

The accident was first reported on Friday evening at 11:45 a.m.

A family member has corrected that Burns’ husband was a passenger and not the driver of the second passenger involved in the accident that was part of the original story. This story also corrects the victim’s age.