James Krieger Killed in 18-Wheeler Accident on I-70 near Vandalia, IL
Vandalia, IL — January 24, 2023, 52-year-old James Krieger died in a collision with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 70 in Fayette County.
Authorities say the incident happened Tuesday afternoon along I-70 near mile marker 60 in the Vandalia area. Preliminary investigation suggests only that Krieger was driving a pickup truck east along the freeway when he somehow collided with the rear of a tractor-trailer.
Krieger was fatally injured in the crash. No other injuries were reported.
The investigation is ongoing. No further information is currently available.
I can't help wondering if anyone out there can or will shed more light on what happened here. In my experience the press rarely updates their coverage of an accident like this; they write about its immediate details and aftermath but unless police learn something unusual they don't carefully follow the story or help shed light on what actually happened. Because of that silence there will likely end up being many lingering questions that urgently need answers—not so much for the public's sake, but for that of the people who lost a loved one. Exactly how and why did this terrible accident happen?
It also stood out to me that the county coroner felt the need to interject and ask people not to post pictures of crash scenes on social media. Apparently someone rather callously put photos of the I-70 wreck on Facebook before authorities could even reach out to the victim's family, which clearly was the wrong thing to do. The coroner's concerns are valid, but I think rather than chiding the existence of the photos at all the real concern should be where they end up. Viewed in another light they could be helpful evidence, which means they should instead be submitted to law enforcement—not to a personal Facebook page. I just hope the coroner's efforts to stop folks from sharing to the wrong places doesn't keep them from sharing with the right ones.
