Missouri pastor killed in chemical truck crash 3 months after church installation

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, October 05, 2023

Less than four months after he was officially installed as the settled pastor of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in New Haven, Missouri, the Rev. Dan Smith was among five people, including two children, who were killed last Friday when a semi-truck containing a load of anhydrous ammonia overturned in and spilled half its contents in central Illinois. He was 67.

“With heavy hearts we share the news of the death of our pastor, Dr. Dan Smith. Dan died in an accident near Teutopolis, IL Friday night (Sept. 29) when a semi-truck carrying anhydrous ammonia overturned. The accident created a large plume cloud of anhydrous on the roadway that caused terribly dangerous air conditions. Dan was one of five fatalities,” the church announced in a statement on Facebook Monday. “We extend our sympathy to Dan's son Micah Smith, his sister Sande Hardy, and other family and friends. Please also keep in your prayers the family and friends of the other four lives that were lost, as well as those who were injured.”

Authorities identified the other victims in the crash as Teutopolis resident Kenneth Bryan, 34, and his children, Walker Bryan, 10, and Rosie Bryan, 7; and Vasile Cricovan, 31, of Twinsburg, Ohio, according to The Associated Press.

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The National Transportation Safety Board said the semi-truck was being driven on U.S. 40 Friday night when the truck’s driver veered to the right to avoid a collision. As the truck did so, another vehicle tried to pass it. The truck then jackknifed, overturned, and slammed into a trailer hitch of a parked vehicle tearing a 6-inch hole in the chemical container. More than half the 7,500-gallons of anhydrous ammonia, which was being transported, spilled out of the container and vaporized into a “toxic plume” which caused authorities to temporarily evacuate some 500 Teutopolis residents within a 1-mile radius of the crash site, the AP said.

Miranda Andrews, a chemistry instructor at the University of Illinois Springfield, told WANDTV  that the area had to be temporarily evacuated after the crash because it was at this point that the chemical was most dangerous to humans.

"It really wants to be dissolved in water, so it will go and find water that's in the air, or if you've inhaled it, it's going to start going after all of the membranes in places like your respiratory tract, it's going to be kind of greedy and want to be dissolved in that water," she said.

The concentrated ammonia in the air will rip the connections in the cells of the human body and cause damage similar to burns, Andrews said.

According to St. Peter’s UCC, Smith was installed as their settled pastor on June 11, but he began working at the church on Feb. 1, 2022.

Prior to joining the UCC, he had served as a Methodist pastor for 20 years.

The late Smith, who had said he grew up poor in rural Indiana, didn’t become a Christian until he was 25 and believed that becoming a Christian as an adult helped him to be more sympathetic to unchurched people.

“I believe due to this I have a view of spirituality that sometimes gives me an edge in reaching the unchurched population,” he said. “I have a strong desire to reach the people that have not experienced the grace and love that the Body of Christ has to offer. The Church offers a healing and hopeful place to belong.”