Man dies as truck hits restaurant

Joseph Cole, 54, of Nevada, was fatally injured at 4:58 p.m. Friday when a southbound tractor-trailer truck hit a westbound car and the truck slammed halfway into the Quick Dine resturant at 1331 N. Osage Blvd.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper said John Becker, 72, of Nevada, and 60-year-old Roger Berning, El Dorado Springs, were seriously injured and airlifted to Freeman Hospital in Joplin. Cole was declared dead at the scene.

Pamela Hoover, 47, of Nevada, sustained "moderate" injuries and was taken by ambulance to Nevada Regional Medical Center.

Trooper Jim Wilde reported near the scene about 7:30 p.m. that Nevada Police Officer Richard Burdick had witnessed the catastrophe and called for help, upon which a host of policemen, the Nevada Fire Department, Vernon County Sheriff's Office and County Ambulance District responded, sealing off the area with red and blue flashing lights and extricating the injured on gurneys to ambulances and helicopters.

"A number of people either refused medical attention or said they would see a doctor," said Wilde, flanked by Chief of Police Graham Burnley and Sheriff Ron Peckman. "It's quite a mess at this point."

Sitting just outside the Quick Dine about an hour after the tragedy, truckdriver Dan Coffman of Nevada said he had been horrified to hit the right front of the 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra as it pulled away from an Atlantic Street stop sign, crossing the U.S. 71 Business Exit where it becomes Osage.

The 1996 Freightliner truck careened sharply to the right and smashed through the restaurant's northeast corner wall. "I was coming off the ramp when this blue car ran right out in front of me," said Coffman, 60, shaking his head. "I locked it up and hit the horn. I heard people hollering when I got out of the truck. I heard a lady hollering, but I couldn't get her out. I hope nobody is dead."

Police shooed away onlookers in the westside parking lot when natural gas from inside the restaurant began spewing through a window that firefighters had knocked out.

The driver of the car, 25-year-old Patrick Crews of Nevada, said he had stopped at the stop sign and didn't see the truck until it was too late. "I was going to pick up my kids," Crews said.

Referring to his passenger, 24-year-old Josh Eaton of Nevada, Crews said, "We didn't see the truck and I couldn't get out of the way."

Neither Coffman, Crews nor Eaton appeared to have been injured. Trooper Wilde said Coffman probably saved Eaton's life by locking his brakes and avoiding hitting the passenger's side door.

One of those hurt was Everett Jenkins, 48, a Nevada city employee, who said he had been sitting in a booth with his brother John and fiance Sherry Steward when the truck, hauling a load of soybeans, crashed through the wall and into the restaurant's interior. The truck was still there two hours later and the entire restaurant appeared to be demolished.

"There was a couple on the other side, trying to get free, and a lady was pinned in the kitchen," Jenkins recounted. "I'm going to have my left elbow looked at. I think it was hit by a child's carseat from the next booth."