Five people who died in an Illinois highway crash succumbed to exposure to a tanker truck's payload, anhydrous ammonia, a toxic chemical used in fertilizer, a coroner said Sunday.
Create your free profile or log in to save this article Create your free profile or log in to save this article "Preliminary investigation indicates five individuals died from exposure to anhydrous ammonia at the crash site," Effingham County Coroner Kim Rhodes said in a statement. The chemical, which is transported as liquid but transforms into gas as it's exposed to air, can burn skin and lungs and paralyze the respiratory system, experts say. The deceased were identified by the coroner as Kenneth Bryan, 34, of Teutopolis; his two children, Rosie Bryan, 7, and Walker Bryan, 10, both of Beecher City, Illinois; Danny J. Smith, 67, of New Haven, Missouri; and Vasile Cricovan, 31, of Twinsburg, Ohio. Seven other people were taken to hospitals, where they were treated for exposure to the chemical, Rhodes said. Five of them were taken by helicopter, indicating serious injury or trauma. "Several" others arrived at hospitals by private transportation after having traveled through the crash site on U.S. Highway 40, the coroner's statement said. The crash,…