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Next time, I'll arrange my own transportation
The headline calls up visions of monkeys amok. A truckload of monkeys rolls over on I-70 near Wheeling WV and PETA was absent at the accident scene. No monkeys were harmed in the production of this story. More from Shelley Hanson at the Wheeling Intelligencer:

Fifty-three monkeys and two people were involved in a two-vehicle accident Thursday on Interstate 70.

Virginia resident Kyle MacDougall, 24, was cited for not assuring a clear distance ahead after his vehicle struck a van while traveling east on I-70 near exit 213. The accident occurred about 6 p.m.

MacDougall was not injured, and the driver of the van was transported to Wheeling Hospital to be checked out, officials said. The monkeys were believed to be uninjured.

Just where was a truckload of monkeys headed to? Perhaps to a revival of the TV series, Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp. More from the scene:

The trailer MacDougall was towing with his pickup truck contained 53 monkeys, mainly African Green and Rhesus monkeys, said Penny Miller, director of the Oglebay Good Zoo.

Miller initially was called to the scene to help transport the monkeys to her zoo temporarily. However, the owner of the monkeys, whose name was not available at press time, decided to retrieve the animals himself. The owner had a three-hour trip, as he was in Pennsylvania, possibly in the city of Hazelton, said Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jim Tracy.

One immediately heads to stories like this: the prospect of constructing a clever headline beckons. Also, there's something about a truckload of monkeys that fires the imagination of anyone who's ever spent any time at the Monkey House at the zoo. If the truckload of monkeys rolls over you've got a scene from the next Austin Powers movie.

by Mondoreb
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by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

A soldier wounded, his family then involved in a car accident. A tragic story, one that makes your heart go out to the survivors. More on this from Albuquerque News:

Army Spc. John Austin Johnson, a Fort Bliss cavalry soldier who has survived five IED attacks in Iraq, and his wife Monalisa were at funeral services in Arkansas Tuesday for their two youngest children, killed Oct. 13 in a single-vehicle rollover on Interstate 10, the El Paso Times reported.

The couple's oldest child, 9-year-old Tyler Johnson, suffered severe head injuries in the accident and remains in critical but stable condition at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, the Times reported. The mother received minor injuries in the crash, the paper has said.

The family had been on their way to visit Johnson at Brooke Army Medical Center Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where he was recovering from wounds he received in his latest brush with an improvised explosive device, the Times has said.

Johnson is a member of Fort Bliss' 4-1 Cavalry and has survived five brushes with improvised explosive devices during his two years in combat in Iraq, Army Sgt. 1st Class Eugene Schmidt told the Dallas Morning News.

His latest brush with an IED left him with a traumatic brain injury that has him speaking with a stutter, Schmidt said.

"He said, `Two of my children are dead?'" said Schmidt, who broke the news to Johnson. "And we started crying."

According to Schmidt, Johnson's wife Lisa overcorrected her sports utility vehicle after getting hit with a gust of wind on the drive from El Paso.

The youngest children -- 2-year-old Logan and 5-year-old Ashley -- died at the scene, and 9-year-old Tyler Johnson suffered massive head injuries and was on life support at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, the Times reported.

An account to help Johnson, who is with Fort Bliss' 4-1 Cavalry, and his family has been set up at FirstLight Federal Credit Union, which has seven branches in El Paso and Las Cruces, the Times reported.

Contributions to the Johnson Family Memorial Fund may be made by calling 1-800-351-1670.

Regardless of whatever god you pray to, a family to include in your prayers.

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