By WMAY Newsroom
(Shutterstock)
2020 will go down as one of the deadliest years on record in Sangamon County.
There were more than 3,000 deaths in the county this year… almost 650 more than occurred in 2019, and the largest number in Coroner Jim Allmon’s 17-year tenure in the office. The 175 COVID-19 deaths among county residents accounts for part of the increase, but Allmon says he thinks the pandemic is indirectly responsible in other ways… including an increase in accidental overdoses and people’s reluctance to get other needed medical care.
While suicides in Sangamon County were nearly unchanged this year compared to last, accidental overdoses jumped dramatically, from 29 in 2019 to 51 this year.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - Authorities identified a woman killed in a Thursday morning I-55 crash.Â
Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon said 25-year-old Keianna Watts was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. It happened at around 4:30 a.m. near Exit 100, which is just north of Sangamon Avenue.Â
Preliminary autopsy results found Watts died from multiple blunt force injuries sustained in the crash.Â
Troopers said she was driving north when she left the road to the left, went into the median, and rolled several times, and came to rest in the southbound lanes.
Watts was ejected from the vehicle.
A second crash happened when a semi going south could not avoid hitting the vehicle. The semi driver was not hurt.