Car collision kills two on Saturday

Official said wet road conditions caused the driver to lose control of the car.

By Anna Koeppel

Published Oct. 16, 2007

Two women died Saturday morning after their car crossed the median and collided with a tractor-trailer.

Gale Blomenkamp, the Boone County Fire Protection District division chief, identified the two women as 20-year-old Elizabeth Shea, of Columbia, and 18-year-old Whitney Bentlage, also of Columbia. Blomenkamp said Bentlage was driving the car northbound on U.S. 63 near McHatton Road in north Boone County when the accident occurred.

Two trucks and 14 firefighters arrived on the scene at 8:24 a.m. and were there for two hours, according to a news release from the district.

Blomenkamp said the car the women were in hydroplaned on the wet road and crossed the median, where it was struck nearly head-on by the southbound tractor-trailer. The car ended up in the median and the tractor-trailer ended up on the shoulder of the highway. The women were ejected from the car, according to the release.

Firefighters pronounced both women dead on the scene, according to the news release.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, 39-year-old Thomas Goddard of Chariton, Iowa, said he was not injured but was transported to Boone Hospital Center for observation, the news release stated.

"It is a very unfortunate accident," Blomenkamp stated in the news release. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these young women."