A 70-year-old Lawson man was hospitalized Sunday morning after his SUV ran off Highway 36, crossed a median, and rolled multiple times before coming to rest upside down roughly 10 miles east of Stewartsville in DeKalb County. The crash happened around 10:05 a.m. as the man drove his 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer eastbound, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
The Trailblazer drifted off the left side of the highway into a ditch, struck a road sign, crossed the crossover median, hit a second ditch, and rolled multiple times before landing on its top off the left shoulder, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report, as reported by KTTN. The vehicle sustained total damage and was towed from the scene by Scotty's, per the same report.
The driver was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, the report notes — a detail that matters given how dangerous rollovers can be on this stretch of highway. Missouri Department of Transportation data shows unbelted occupants face a fatal injury risk more than 40 times higher than those who are buckled in during crashes, underscoring just how critical that restraint can be in a multi-rollover wreck like this one.
Emergency Crews Respond to the Scene
DeKalb-Clinton EMS transported the injured driver to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph for treatment, according to the crash report. The Emergency Medical Service Wiki lists an ambulance station in Maysville for DeKalb-Clinton Ambulance District No. 1. Mosaic Life Care operates as a Level II Trauma Center and Level II Stroke Center, serving as the only tertiary hospital between Kansas City and Omaha, according to the facility's own description of its trauma services.
Trooper Raul Hernandez, badge number 706, investigated the crash, with Sergeant S.J. Cool, badge number 546, assisting at the scene, per the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report cited by KTTN. Hernandez joined Troop H's Zone 10 — which covers Daviess and DeKalb counties — in January after graduating from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Law Enforcement Academy in December 2025, having previously worked as a police officer in Marshall, Missouri, according to the St. Joseph Post.
A Busy Stretch of Highway
The crash occurred on a section of U.S. Highway 36 that runs as a four-lane divided expressway through DeKalb County, forming part of the V.F.W. Memorial Highway and overlapping with Route 110 along the Chicago–Kansas City Expressway corridor, according to Wikipedia's entry on the route. Missouri also enforces seat belt rules for adult drivers under a secondary enforcement law, meaning officers cannot stop a vehicle for a seat belt violation alone unless another primary traffic violation is observed, per Missouri Department of Transportation guidance.
This wreck adds to a string of severe crashes along the Highway 36 corridor in 2026, including a fatal two-vehicle collision near Osborn in June and a double-fatality crash at Highway 36 and Route J in Caldwell County in August, according to regional crash coverage from My Cameron News. Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop H, which is headquartered in St. Joseph and patrols 15 counties across Northwest Missouri including DeKalb, has recorded a 17 percent year-over-year increase in vehicle fatalities through late September compared with the same period in 2025.
