The two-vehicle crash on Saturday morning, February 15th, at Effingham County, Illinois, left a man from Mason, dead. The Effingham County Coroner’s Office identified him as Ronald Hite, 62.

The deceased was driving north in a GMC Yukon on Dexter Road at the Interstate 70 overpass, east of Altamont and south of US Route 40. He crossed the center line suddenly and crashed his car into a Chevrolet pickup.

The pickup was driven by an Altamont man, Chauncy Kuhns, 34, and he was headed south. The crash happened at about 10:15 a.m., and Hite died instantly from his wounds.

The deceased had a passenger, Bryan Hite, 37, who suffered severe trauma and was taken by ambulance to the HSHS St. Anthony Memorial Hospital. From there, the injured man got airlifted to HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield.

Bryan was in surgery for a long time on Saturday night and is currently recuperating. Kuhns, on the other hand, was taken to the Memorial hospital by a family member, and later got transferred to the Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.

The first responders at the scene were the Effingham County Deputies, the Altamont Fire Protection District, and Illinois State Police. The Abbott EMS and ISP Accident Reconstruction Team also responded.

On Tuesday, February 18th, the Effingham Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy to determine if there’s a medical reason why Hite veered off his lane. The coroner is working with the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office in its investigation into the crash.

The ISP are also carrying out a reconstruction exercise on the scene of the accident to determine what went wrong. A toxicology report will also get filed to rule out intoxication of any kind on Hite’s part.

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