Trooper Killed when Trapped in Burning Car after Crash

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5/22/03
By LINDA MAN

The Kansas City Star

Sgt. Hugh Fowler of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime inspected the burned patrol car of Trooper Michael Newton late Thursday morning when it arrived at the patrol’s Troop A headquarters in Lee’s Summit. Newton was killed in an accident on Interstate 70 near Missouri 13. Auto Technician Sean Jacobs, right, helped Fowler with his investigation. Photo by FRED BLOCHER, The Kansas City Star

A Missouri State trooper died today when a pickup truck smacked into his patrol car on Interstate 70, trapping the trooper inside and causing it to burst into flames.

The driver of the pickup truck and another motorist were also injured.

Trooper Micheal Newton, 25, from Higginsville, died at the scene.

The wreck occurred about 7 a.m. on eastbound I-70, about one mile west of Higginsville in Lafayette County.

Officials said Newton had stopped a Lincoln for a traffic violation at 6:54 a.m. The driver of the Lincoln sat in the patrol vehicle as Newton wrote a ticket. About five minutes later, dispatch began fielding calls about a wreck from that location.

Officials said a pickup truck, towing a flatbed trailer, drove onto the shoulder and slammed into the patrol car. The patrol car then struck the Lincoln.

Officials said witnesses pulled the Lincoln driver out of the window. The driver, who was taken to the University of Missouri Medical Center in Columbia, suffered third-degree burns, covering 40 percent of his body.

The pickup truck driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a Lexington hospital.