June 21--A Tennessee man has been charged in connection with a Friday morning crash that sent five people to the hospital and injured nine others on the Stevenson Expressway.
Mark Tipton, 52, of Crossville, was charged with driving while fatigued and was cited with brake out of adjustment, automatic slack adjusters required, 14-hour rule violation, false report of duty status and failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash, according to Illinois State Police.
Shortly before 4 a.m. Friday, Tipton was driving a 2016 Freightliner in the northbound lanes of I-55, just south of 1st Avenue in Forest View. Tipton failed to stop and caused a chain-reaction crash involving 12 vehicles, police said.
Five people were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, and nine people were treated at the scene, police said.
Tipton told police he had fallen asleep at the wheel and did not attempt to stop before approaching the vehicles.
He was scheduled to appear in court Sunday.
