Semi crashes into St. Paul business

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Driver killed, another injured in early Thursday morning accident

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

ST. PAUL - A 61-year old Mississippi man was killed early Thursday morning when the semi-trailer he was driving plowed into a St. Paul business.

According to Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber the accident occurred at the intersection of 130th Street and 205th Avenue.

The semi, driven by Richard Cathey Jr, 61, of Senatobia, Miss, went through the intersection eastbound and crashed head first into the Tri-State Stove Inc. building just east off Locust and Main Streets in town at about 3 a.m.

"At this point we don't know whether it was weather-related or medical, but the driver was headed east bound and applied the brakes and went head-on into a building," he said this morning.

Cathey was pronounced dead at the scene.

Weber said a second male passenger in the vehicle, 69-year-old Alexander Levell, also of Senatobia, was in the bunk of the semi sleeping and was taken to Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center's Fort Madison campus for non life-threatening injuries.

West Point and St. Paul firefighters responded to the scene along with Lee County EMS, Lee County Secondary Roads, the Iowa State Patrol, the sheriff's department and several local volunteers.

Sheriff's deputies are working with authorities in the Louisiana and Mississippi area to notify family members, but the state patrol is handling the investigation.

"A huge shout out to the first responders and tow truck drivers on the scene and some local people who jumped in to help. It was bitterly cold out there and they did a great job providing assistance," Weber said.

The accident was the county's first fatality of 2022.

accident, collision, fatality, injuries, Iowa State Patrol, Lee County Sheriff's Department, news, Pen City Current, semi-trailer, St. Paul, Tri-State Stove Inc.

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