UNION COUNTY, Ill. (AP) — Two Southern Illinois University-Carbondale graduate students and a Missouri woman died Thursday after their vehicles collided on a highway, police said.
The crash that occurred about 4:15 a.m. on Illinois Route 3 in Union County killed Marie A. Meunier, 32 of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and students Pavan Swarna and Vamshi K. Pechetty, both 23, of Carbondale, state police said.
They were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, police said.
Meunier was driving a 2013 blue Fiat sedan when her car crossed the center line and struck the front of the 2019 Toyota sedan Swarna was driving, police said.
Three other SIU graduate students were injured in the collision, police said: 23-year-old Yaswanth S. Uppalapati, 24-year-old Kalyan Dorna and 23-year-old Kakumanu Karthik.
Three other SIU graduate students were injured in the collision, police said: 23-year-old Yaswanth S. Uppalapati, 24-year-old Kalyan Dorna and 23-year-old Kakumanu Karthik, all of Carbondale. Karthik suffered lift-threatening injuries, police said.
“We are working to support the families during this incredibly difficult time,” SIU Chancellor Austin Lane said in a statement. “Our thoughts and hearts are with these students and their loved ones.”
