I-44 closed as pileups kill 2, injure 11

LEBANON (AP) - Two people are dead after a driver lost control on a snow-covered highway in southern Missouri.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said the out-of-control car skidded into a tractor-trailer that was stopped Saturday afternoon because of an earlier crash on Interstate 44.

The 20-year-old Fort Leonard Wood man who was driving the car survived with minor injuries, but both passengers were ejected and killed. The patrol identified the victims as 24-year-old Eduardo Contreras of Wichita, Kansas, and Cesar Hernandez of Los Angeles.

The Missouri Department of Transportation says it has been working to clear wreckage from another I-44 chain reaction pileup that happened Saturday when a tractor-trailer crashed into the rear of a Greyhound bus.

The department expected it to take most of Sunday before both westbound lanes were reopened.

At least 11 people were sent to a hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

Patrol Sgt. Cody Fulkerson said no one was killed when between 25 and 35 vehicles crashed into each other Saturday. Police closed the westbound interstate near Rolla. A hazardous materials team was cleaning up a small leak of a flammable liquid from a tractor-trailer.