Witnesses at the scene reported that Charles Hooks, 52, who was driving a black 2000 Ford Explorer with Sumner County plates, was coming off of I-24 at Exit 65 but failed to stop at the stop sign and tried to turn left at the intersection with 68, according to a report filed by Trooper Billy Over of the Kentucky State Police, Post One.
Another man, Dennis Bonnette, 60, of Rock Falls, Ill., was driving east on the highway toward Hopkinsville in a 2000 Kenworth semi-trailer truck hauling a piece of heavy farm equipment and saw the sport utility vehicle that was in his path, said Over’s report.
Although Bonnette attempted to slow down to avoid the SUV, he was unsuccessful, and the two vehicles collided at the intersection, and shortly thereafter he lost control of the semi-trailer, which landed on its side and hit an embankment just off the north side of the road, Over said.
The SUV veered off in the opposite direction, overturned and landed on its roof after knocking over a light pole and took out a barbed-wire fence in the process, said Over. Hooks, a former Cadiz resident and a Trigg County High School graduate, was injured and sent to the hospital, although Over didn’t know the severity of Hooks’s injuries.
(For the rest of the story, check out this week's edition of the Cadiz Record.)
