All eight of James Nelson’s family members involved in a head-on crash Thursday morning with a tractor-trailer on U.S. 50 near Fowler Road are back at their Franklin County home in Dittmer near St. Clair.

“Everyone’s actually doing much better than they actually should be,” said Nelson, pastor at Harvest Baptist in Villa Ridge. “It’s a blessing, all things considered. God blessed us.”

Nelson’s wife, Ashlee, 36, was released from Mercy St. Louis on Monday evening. She broke her sternum and her toes and has a serious case of whiplash. Their 13-year-old son had a level 2 rupture of his spleen which did not require surgery. Instead, said Nelson, he’s confined to bed rest for two weeks — a “fate worse than death, I think,” the pastor joked.

Their 4-year-old son received a broken shin. Five other children were also injured and were treated and released that day.

Ashlee D. Nelson was driving the family’s 2016 Ford Transit Van west on U.S. 50 when she crossed over the center line near the crest of the hill. As she crested the hill entering the right-hand, downhill curve, she crossed into the eastbound lane. Traveling empty in the eastbound lane following an off-load of freight in Jefferson City, trucker Brian S. Keller, 56, of Payson, Ill., had no chance of avoiding the impact with the van.

“She was already in my lane,” said Keller who was driving a 2020 Peterbilt pulling a trailer.

Nelson’s van was skidding toward a violent impact. A 911 call was made at 10:42 a.m. and the caller reported there were multiple injured children involved.

Keller had decided to take the scenic route home to Illinois where he was heading for the weekend instead of the interstate. A decision he said he was questioning.

He slammed on his brakes. The van kept coming, skidding toward him. His truck came to rest after the impact against the guardrails protecting motorists from a steep drop off. 

“I opened my door and all I heard was children screaming,” said Keller, about 30 minutes after the crash, as emergency personnel worked to free Nelson from her destroyed van. They would need just over an hour to remove her from the crumbled vehicle.

Motorists coming upon the scene were tending to the children who ranged in age from under a year old to 15. One woman was sitting in a ditch with the Nelson’s infant daughter in her lap. She leaned back to comfort the child against her chest.

The Nelsons’ 15-year-old daughter was holding her 2-year-old brother as she showed ambulance personnel a family cell phone to call her father.

Flown from the scene to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis were the 4-year-old with the broke leg, the 13-year-old with the injured spleen. Transported by ambulances to Mercy Washington were the infant female, a 2-year-old boy, a 7-year-old female,  and a 15-year-old female. A 10-year-old boy was taken by ambulance to University Hospital in Columbia.

Various family members were reportedly staying with children at the different hospitals, according to a post from the family’s church where James now pastors. They formerly lived in Neosho, Mo., which is where family members were identified as being from in the MSHP crash report.

Osage Ambulance District personnel arrived from the west side of the crash scene and Owensville Area Ambulance District personnel worked from the east side along with the Gerald Area Ambulance District. Three helicopter ambulances landed to the west of the scene below Fowler Road. Aircrews included Arch 6, Phelps Air, and Air Evac. The crash took place 364 feet uphill from Fowler near the top of the curve.

Owensville firemen removed the van’s sliding door, the passenger door and front passenger seat, and the driver’s side door to gain access to the driver’s compartment to free Nelson from the crumpled wreckage.

Nelson and all of her children were wearing seat belts or were in age-appropriate car seats, according the Missouri State Highway Patrol report by Trooper Dustin H. Crafton.

Keller was also wearing his seat belt.

“They all have a lot of bumps and bruises but they’re all OK,” said Nelson about his family. “We were blessed.”

A tractor-trailer driver heading west, who came across the crash scene, was back waiting beside his rig as cleanup of the roadway continued into the afternoon. He asked if the woman driving the van was still alive. When told she and the children were all transported from the scene by helicopter or ambulance, he paused and said,  “the good Lord was looking out for that family.”