Interstate 44, between St. Louis and St. Roberts - Near Death expirence

Hi everybody.
I've got what might be a considered a strange request. My uncle, who's a retired trucker in Illinois said this might be the place where I can get a little help. I used to ride with him during some of all my summer vacations when I was a teenager. The best of times!
I'll try to keep this as short as I can. *I just reread this, It's not all that short.
When I was in the Army back in 1974 and stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO., I was riding with a guy who lived 30 miles away from my hometown and we were on our way back to the base very late on a Sunday night. We had gone through St. Louis and were on Interstate 44. They had just repaved the road and it was black as it could be. No moon, no towns around so it as dark as a coal mine, his head lights weren't aimed too well and they pointed down about half way out where they were supposed to be. They hadn't painted the white stripes on either side of the road yet and the white center lines weren't the normal 12 foot long and about 30 feet apart distance. These were just temporary lines that were about 3 foot long (looked like white dots at 70 miles an hour) and were approximately 45-50 foot apart. I've never been on such a smooth, beautiful road before that was as dangerous as this one.
The guy driving was a terrible driver and bull headed as well. He would keep the car in the left lane the entire time. It didn't mess with the other traffic because there was none. Only saw 2 other cars in 50 miles. The problem with being in the left lane without any white lines on the sides and only those little white center strips was if the road curved to the right, the left side tires would go right to the edge of the road before he realized it and he'd have to jerk the wheel to stay on the pavement. I was a nervous wreck. I mentioned that it would probably be safer to straddle the little white center strip so if the road curved either way, he'd have a few extra feet to correct the direction of the car. I repeat, terrible driver, he wouldn't listen. I repeat, also bullheaded.
Somewhere in the extremely black countryside, we came upon a bridge. Sure enough, he headed right for it. Now normally, the highway department puts up those metal barriers so if you go off the road, the barrier will guide you back onto the road with a hard glancing blow. Big problem. They hadn't put up the barriers yet. We were only about 1 second away of hitting this massive concrete bridge head-on, it would have hit directly in front of the driver even if he turned the wheel. At 70 mph, we would have both been goners. About a half second before we hit and I was mid steam in a long and very loud list of swear words, the front tire went down into a large pothole hitting the left side of the wall of the pothole. It threw the front of the car to the right just enough for the front to clear the bridge but he sideswiped the bridge for at least 100 yards before he could pull it to the right. With the car scraping the concrete, the sparks lit up the countryside for 150 yards. The interior of the car looked like it was daytime out, only with a beautiful gold tint to everything.
This bridge was slanted downhill, at least at a 3 degree slope. About 250 yards down the hill, there was a car parked on the shoulder of the road; 2 guys taking a leak. They came back to our car, which now had 2 flat tires on the left, and their eyes were huge. (Probably not as big as ours!) They couldn't believe the whole show that we had just put on. They said the sparks went at least 50-60 feet in the air and 50 feet from front to back and it just kept sparkling like a golden rainbow. They backed their car up so we could see the damage with their headlights. The driver had to get out of my door because his had been welded shut by the accident. At the bottom of the bridge, which most bridges have is a section of concrete that is about a foot tall and sticks out towards the traffic about 10 inches or so. The car had smashed against this bottom part and it had scrapped the car body all the way into the frame.
The two guys took us and 1 of the tires to the next town so we could get a new tire to go with our spare. Got a ride with a truck driver back to the car. Got back to the base around 6am. NEVER rode with him again.
All that and I'm finally getting to the point. If any of you are driving Interstate 44 from St. Louis, going west, can you please tell me the mile marker where there is a long bridge, going downhill. We we hit it, the concrete was, I believe, about 5 foot tall or more. Maybe they put in a new bridge since then with lower sides. But what they couldn't have changed is the contour of the land, at least I don't think they would have. I'm pretty sure that it was at least 45 miles west of St. Louis, but I don't know for sure.
I'd appreciate any help. I tried using Google Earth for about 8 hours and never found it.

Thanks and safe trucking to all,
Abe Linkun

 

Thanks for the reply, KW.

Part of the problem about knowing what it was over was that the night was BLACK.

From what I can remember, the bridge was concrete-walled, at least next to the left lane. To tell you the truth, we were so busy watching the bridge coming straight at the front of the car, that the wall of the bridge on the right hand side could have been made out of popcorn and candy canes.

I don't think that it was over a railroad or roadway. I think, and here's where it gets a little fuzzy, the left side bridge was longer than the right hand bridge. It's like underneath the first part of the bridge there was a river (just guessing) and underneath the rest of the left side there was a swamp or at least a lowland. Perhaps the bridge was partially built on a hillside.

The bridge wall itself was, I think, from 5 foot to 6 foot tall.

I think it was somewhere between St Clair to Cuba. 40 years have sure made it hard to remember the parts that were incidental to the near wreck.

Hope this helps you.

BTW. My uncle used to drive a gas tanker out of Ashkum, IL. I took a lot of trips with him up to LaPort Indiana and other refineries near Chicago.

Thanks again,
Abe

 

Thanks again, KW.

Looks like I'll be driving my Google down I-44 this weekend.

I already had an idea about the lack of a cement-walled bridge with all the modernization that's gone on through the years. But the layout of the bridge itself, should be fairly close to what it was. It went downhill at a 3-5 % grade so they would have had to do some MAJOR changing of the landscape.

The term "1955 Pete tanker" doesn't ring a bell, but I'll ask him when I call him this weekend.

Thanks again for all your help.

Be safe,
Abe

 

I hope someday, I can say, "Eureka. I've found it."

"DUEL"!!!!! One of the greatest TV movies ever made! To this day, it's one of the most memorable movies I've ever watched. It showed the world how much of a genius Spielberg was. It had my sphincter so clamped shut, I couldn't go to the bathroom for a week!

I'm going to try (this ought to be a headache and a half) to contact an engineer in Missouri who is in charge of checking the bridges on I-44. Somewhere, somebody has the information on which construction firm built the new bridges and maybe, they will have pictures (Yeah, I'm probably dreaming here.) or at least some facts on where and the type of construction of the old bridge.

I don't really need it for my story, I just want it. (It's just me being too anal.)

Take care,
Abe

 

WOW!!! What a chase. There was a bridge at 3:20 that sort of looked like it, slight downgrade, but it's not long enough. I didn't see exactly what I was looking for but thanks for the heads-up. I wonder what happened to the suspect.

Thanks again.