State Police say six people were injured in a four-vehicle pileup in the northbound lanes of I-57 as the vehicles were approaching a lane restriction work zone.
The chain-reaction crash occurred when a pickup driven by 32-year-old Jeffery Pannell of De Queen, Arkansas failed to yield for traffic traveling at a reduced speed in front of him. Pannell first hit a car driven by 29-year-old Aric Karraker of Kankakee, in turn pushing him into a van driven by 72-year-old Danny Hoeinghaus of Kinmundy, who was then pushed into an SUV driven by 57-year-old Tamara Westmoreland of Valparaiso, Indiana. After impact, the Karraker car left the east side of the roadway, struck a guardrail, and overturned. Pannell left the west side of the road and struck a bridge support pillar.
Pannell and Karraker were taken to the hospital along with a Kankakee woman and three children from Kankakee traveling with Karraker.
Pannell was ticketed for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
The crash occurred at 1:52 Sunday afternoon.
