A 66-year-old Fairbury man died at the scene Friday morning after his pickup truck collided with a semi tractor-trailer at a rural intersection west of Cullom, according to authorities. John Traub was driving a Ford Ranger north on 3300 East Road when he failed to stop at the intersection with Illinois Route 116, entering the path of an eastbound semi that struck his truck.
The crash happened around 7:33 a.m. Friday at the intersection of Route 116 and 3300 East Road in Sullivan Township, per the Livingston County Coroner's Office, as reported by WSPYnews.com. Traub was pronounced dead at the scene. The semi driver was not injured, according to The Pantagraph, which cited Livingston County Coroner Michael E. Renner; law enforcement had not released any charges or identification details regarding the truck driver.
Emergency Crews Respond to Rural Crossroads
The wreck drew a coordinated response from several agencies covering the sparsely populated stretch of eastern Livingston County. The Cullom Fire Department, Saunemin Fire Department, and Livingston County Sheriff's Office all assisted at the scene, the station's report notes, alongside the Illinois State Police, which is investigating the crash. According to Route-24-Radio, Traub's truck came to rest in the south ditch east of the intersection, and responders closed Route 116 at 3300 East Road for more than four hours before clearing the scene around 11:40 a.m.
The eastbound semi struck Traub's Ford Ranger after he reportedly failed to stop at the stop sign controlling 3300 East Road, per the same account. His autopsy remains pending as the coroner's office works to establish the official cause of death, a standard step in fatal vehicle crashes under Illinois county coroner procedures.
Highway Known for High-Speed, Rural Crossings
Illinois Route 116 is a 176-mile east-west state highway that links Interstate 55 at Pontiac through Cullom to Interstate 57 at Ashkum, functioning as a high-speed rural connector across central Illinois, according to background compiled from Wikipedia. Under Section 11-904 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, drivers approaching a stop sign at an intersection with a highway like Route 116 must come to a complete stop and yield to any oncoming vehicle close enough to pose an immediate hazard — a rule central to how investigators assess fault at rural crossroads like this one.
Sullivan Township, where the crash occurred, is a rural agricultural area covering 41 square miles in eastern Livingston County with a 2020 census population of just 657, and Cullom is its only incorporated village, per U.S. Census Bureau data. Fairbury, Traub's home community, sits roughly 15 to 20 miles southwest of the crash site in southern Livingston County.
The setting underscores a broader demographic pattern in the county: more than 40 percent of Livingston County residents live in rural areas, and nearly one in five is age 65 or older, a share more than three percentage points above the Illinois state average, according to a county public health study. Primary jurisdiction over crash reconstruction on state highways in the county falls to the Illinois State Police under Troop 5, and the investigation remains active alongside the Livingston County Coroner's Office as the formal autopsy is completed.
