Tight Squeeze: Semi Hits Cars Rounding Pinckneyville Courthouse

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A 29-year-old Cleves, Ohio truck driver has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident and improper turning after he struck two parked cars on the courthouse square in Pinckneyville, then left the scene.

Pinckneyville police identify the driver as David Merkle.

At approximately 9:22 a.m. Thursday a tractor trailer driven by Merkle was coming off Rt. 127 from the north and turning west around the public square and struck two unattended vehicles. The truck left the scene and was located in Steeleville by authorities there.

The owners of the parked vehicles were not identified, but one sustained major damage to the back bumper, taillights, tailgate and back window. It was thrown into a planter on the sidewalk. The impact through that vehicle into the side of second vehicle which sustained lesser damage.

The truck and its driver were escorted back to Pinckneyville where the driver was interviewed and issued the citations. The driver told authorities he was not aware that his truck had hit the vehicles during the turn.

That turn is the narrowest of the courthouse turns.