Two people are dead after a Wednesday morning semi-truck crash that closed westbound Interstate 64 at mile marker 34 in Clinton County. According to Illinois State Police reports, at 5:50 a.m. the semi was traveling west on I-64 as it approached the Billhartz Road overpass. Witnesses said the truck was weaving all over the roadway before it left the interstate to the right and hit the bridge. Initial reports indicated that a passenger in the truck was ejected from the tractor-trailer's sleeper cabin and was trapped under the semi. The driver also died in the crash. According to the Clinton County Coroner, the identity of the victims has not been released pending notification of family members. Illinois State Police spokesman Calvin Dye said the victims are both men, the driver was born in 1987 and the passenger was born in 1959. They were working for a trucking company out of Florida and they are not local residents. The tractor-trailer came to a rest with the cab turned on its side, with the driver's side door against the bridge base. The force of the collision caused the trailer to split open and project its contents, spools of thin aluminum strips, forward down the highway. It did not appear that any other vehicles were involved in the crash. Police and rescue workers combed through the wreckage to make sure there were no other passengers in the truck but did not find any additional victims.
