2 Missouri students hurt in Illinois crash file lawsuit

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - Two Missouri Southern State University students who were injured in an Illinois traffic crash that left four dead have filed a lawsuit.

The Joplin Globe reports that Lexa Curtis, of Lamar, Missouri, and Brianna Allen, of Oswego, Kansas, are seeking damages for "severe and permanent injuries" and "great pain and anguish."

They were returning last November from a Model United Nations conference in Chicago when Colorado truck driver Mohamed Yussuf Jama plowed into multiple vehicles that had slowed or stopped in a construction zone. He's been charged with four counts of reckless homicide in the deaths of a Missouri Southern student and three people from Illinois.

The suit is among several that have been filed over the crash. It names Jama, his employer and the firm managing the construction zone.