Three Roby residents, including a 5-year-old girl, died in a head-on collision in Texas County, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
The crash happened at 1:25 p.m. Tuesday on Highway 17, 10 miles north of Houston, according to Tpr. Z.B. Tate with Troop G of the patrol, Willow Springs. He reported a southbound 2000 Lincoln driven by Tommy L. Federico, 23, Roby, ran off the right side of the road, returned to the road and began skidding sideways, then crossed the center line and struck an oncoming 2022 Ford pickup truck driven by John W. Raney, 26, Houston.
Federico and passenger Helen L. Drury, 25, were reportedly not wearing seat belts and suffered fatal injuries. The 5-year-old girl was secured in a child safety seat but also suffered fatal injuries, Tate reported.
A 3-year-old girl in the same vehicle suffered serious injuries and a year-old boy suffered moderate injuries; both were secured in car seats. The girl was taken by Children's Mercy Critical Care helicopter to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City for treatment and the boy was taken by Mercy Lifeline to University Hospital in Columbia, the report shows.
The names of the children are not made public because state law protects the privacy of minors.
No injuries were reported for Raney, who was wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision.
The deaths were the 18th, 19th and 20th traffic fatalities recorded this year in the nine-county Troop G area, compared to 27 in the same time frame in 2023.
Tate was assisted at the scene by Major Crash Investigation Unit team Cpls. K.R. Waters, J.R. Sellars and D.W. Henley and Tpr. N.B. Poynter I.V. Brutsky-Stempkovsky.
