One of two I-39 crash victims identified

Friday, October 19, 2007 9:28 PM CDT

By Greg Stanmar
gregstanmar@insightbb.com

TONICA -- The LaSalle County coroner’s office was trying Thursday to verify the identity of one of the two people killed late Tuesday night in a fiery crash on Interstate 39.

One of the victims was identified Thursday as Maricela Carreon, 39, of LaSalle. The name of the second victim is not expected to be released until today.

A truck driver, Gregory Land, 51, of Poplar Grove, was credited with trying to save the unidentified driver who was still alive in the burning Jeep, police said. He was burned in the attempt.

The accident occurred when a southbound pickup driven by Russell Flanders, 22, of Elburn, struck the rear of the Jeep, said Chad Broyles, state police accident reconstruction expert. The view on the interstate was obscured because a load of hay had caught fire farther down the road, police said.

The Jeep then was pushed into the rear of a semitrailer truck driven by Michael Yanke, 46, of Muskego, Wis., who was not injured.

The two LaSalle women in the Jeep were heading to work at Oak State Products, a cookie factory in Wenona, a company spokesman said.

Flanders was released Thursday from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria.

Land tried pulling the victims from the fiery wreck. Mike Land, of Elgin, said his father was a truck driver heading north on the interstate when he came upon the accident on the southbound side. He stopped and ran across the median, and found one victim was still alive.

“She was burning but still alive and crying for help,” Mike Land said.

A number of fire extinguishers from nearby trucks were used but the vehicle’s door had become too hot to touch, he said.

“He had to be pulled from the scene” when the rescue failed and the woman died, Mike Land said.

“The doctors who were treating him at the (Peru) hospital (for burned hands) called him a hero for doing everything humanly possible to save the woman,” said the son. “Unfortunately, he doesn’t feel like a hero.”

Land drives a truck on a route from Rockford to Danville “and will have to pass that spot every night,” said his wife, Patty Land.

Further investigation will be done by the state’s attorney’s office, Broyles said.