Couple helps driver who slid off icy bridge, Missouri cops say. A crash kills all 3

A stranded driver and the couple that stopped to help him died in a crash Sunday night, Missouri police say.

Paden Sorbello, 23, slid off the icy Big River bridge on Highway 67 and into a median, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Then Joseph D. Reddick II, 43, and Heather Rusan, 39, stopped to help him, police say.

While they were standing by the car, a 53-year-old Festus, Missouri, man driving a Jeep Liberty slid on the icy bridge, police say. His vehicle hit a cable barrier, flipped over and struck all three people, police say.

Sorbello, Reddick and Rusan died at the scene. They were all Bonne Terre, Missouri, residents.

The driver of the Jeep totaled his vehicle but only suffered minor injuries, police said.

Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Dallas Thompson said the driver didn’t show any signs of intoxication, but he was “driving too fast for the conditions,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. He was not arrested.

Reddick and Rusan were boyfriend and girlfriend, according to a GoFundMe started by Rusan’s daughter, Shyla Scott. Scott wrote on the page that Rusan had four children, including two who are still in school.

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 12:04 PM.