BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
Commercial-News
URBANA — The surviving passenger in a fatal accident last week died Tuesday as a result of her injuries.
Brittany Pritts, 21, of Mansfield died at 5:10 p.m. Tuesday at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, according to a release by Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup. An inquest may be held at a later date.
Pritts was the passenger in a vehicle that collided with an oncoming semi tractor trailer just before 12:30 p.m. Thursday on Interstate 74, just east of the South Gilbert Street ramp. She was extricated from the vehicle and flown directly from the scene to Carle hospital where she had remained in critical condition.
Northup described Pritts’ injuries from the crash as “traumatic,” according to the release.
According to the Illinois State Police, a Toyota Camry driven by Mark Sjuts, 52, of St. Joseph was headed eastbound when the vehicle went off the road, through the median and collided with a westbound semi tractor trailer. The collision with the semi forced the car backward into the median, with the semi following.
Sjuts and his son, 23-year-old Chason Coty Sjuts of St. Joseph, were killed in the accident and pronounced dead at the scene. The three were driving to Indianapolis.
State police have not indicated a reason for the crash, although a released issued the day of the accident from the Vermilion County Coroner’s Office indicated the car may have hydroplaned as a result of water on the roadway from passing rain showers that day.
