A 36-year-old Graham man was thrown from his pickup truck late Saturday night after it ran off Route V and rolled over near Skidmore, leaving him in a tree line off the roadway. He suffered only minor injuries despite being ejected from the 2024 Ram 3500, which was later declared a total loss.
According to the The Maryville Forum, the crash happened at approximately 11:51 p.m. Saturday on Route V at Delta Trail, about a mile east of Skidmore. The driver was headed west on Route V when the pickup left the north side of the roadway and overturned, according to a report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol cited by kttn.com.
The truck came to rest on its wheels facing south in a ditch on the north side of the road, while the driver ended up off the roadway in a tree line northeast of the vehicle, the outlet reported. Nodaway County Ambulance crews transported him to Mosaic Medical Center in Maryville for treatment of his injuries, which were described as minor.
Seat Belt Use
Both KTTN and the Forum reported that the driver was not wearing a seat belt.
The Ram 3500 was totaled in the crash and towed from the scene by Kizer's Towing, per the same kttn.com account. Trooper A.J. Kempa of the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the crash, with assistance from the Nodaway County Sheriff's Office.
Patrol's Redaction Policy Faces Legal Challenge
The crash comes amid a broader fight over how much information the Missouri State Highway Patrol discloses about crashes like this one. The patrol began excluding the names of people involved in online preliminary traffic-crash reports starting in November 2024, according to kttn.com's earlier reporting on the policy shift.
The Missouri Press Association and Missouri Broadcasters Association have since sued the Missouri State Highway Patrol, arguing the agency is withholding crash-report names illegally. Per a statement from the Missouri Broadcasters Association, the associations filed a petition in Cole County Circuit Court earlier this month, contending that for nearly 30 years the patrol posted traffic and boating crash reports online without redactions before the practice changed sometime in 2024.
