A 64-year-old woman from St. Charles, Missouri was airlifted to a hospital in Springfield after the side-by-side she was driving rolled backward and overturned on a hill in rural Reynolds County Friday evening. Her passenger, a 65-year-old woman from Manchester, was not seriously hurt in the crash, which happened around 7 p.m. off County Road 442 near Redford.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report, the driver had been operating the vehicle northbound on private property along County Road 442 when it came to a stop on a hill, then rolled backward and overturned, MSHP said. The driver suffered serious injuries and was flown to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, while her passenger refused medical treatment at the scene, according to E Communications. KFVS12 was first to report the incident, noting that the passenger's injuries were described as minor.
Reynolds County's remote Ozark geography means serious trauma cases like this one typically require an air ambulance to reach a Springfield trauma center, since the nearest major hospital sits more than 100 miles away, per the same account. County Road 442 runs near Redford through timberland and steep terrain close to Sinking Creek and the Black River, an area frequently marketed to side-by-side riders, according to Trulia listings for property in the region.
A Recurring Danger On Reynolds County's Hills
This is not the first side-by-side tragedy to strike the county. On August 6, 2025, a 38-year-old woman from Annapolis was killed on County Road 360 near Lesterville when her Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000 failed to negotiate a curve, rolled over, and trapped her underneath, according to KSDK. That crash, along with Friday's rollover, underscores how hilly rural routes across the Ozarks continue to pose a rollover hazard for side-by-side riders.
Because Friday's crash occurred on private property rather than a public road, the state's standard highway licensing and speed restrictions for utility terrain vehicles under RSMo § 304.013 did not apply, as those rules govern UTV and ATV operation only on public highways. Even so, Missouri Revised Statutes § 577.060 still required investigators to complete a formal written report and submit it to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, since the law grants officers authority to investigate off-road vehicle crashes involving serious injury or death on private land as well as public roads.
Troop G's Wide Rural Coverage Area
The Missouri State Highway Patrol's Troop G, headquartered in Willow Springs, holds primary traffic enforcement and crash investigation authority across nine counties in south-central and southeast Missouri, including Reynolds County, as previously reported by Hoodline following a separate incident on the Black River near Lesterville earlier this month. That vast, forested jurisdiction covers terrain where off-road vehicle recreation is common, and where a 2021 EF2 tornado tore through eastern Reynolds County, damaging homes along County Road 442 and clearing large swaths of timber across the hillsides, per the National Weather Service.
Part Of A Broader Pattern Across Southeast Missouri
Friday's crash also arrives just a week after a fatal UTV rollover in Cape Girardeau County, where a 44-year-old man died when his Polaris Ranger swerved to avoid a cow on County Road 376 and overturned. Nationally, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates off-highway vehicle incidents cause more than 800 fatalities and nearly 95,000 emergency department-treated injuries every year. Research published by the CDC found that rollovers account for half of all side-by-side crashes, with two-thirds of victims ejected and nearly half pinned or struck by the vehicle, findings that researchers say highlight how seat belt use significantly affects the protective value of a side-by-side's roll cage during a rollover.
.jpg){kind=link}