Three people killed when two cars collide in rural southern Illinois, state police said

Two Southern Illinois University-Carbondale graduate students and a Missouri woman died Thursday after their vehicles collided on Illinois 3 in Union County, state police said.

Marie A. Meunier, 32 of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and students Pavan Swarna and Vamshi K. Pechetty, both 23, of Carbondale, were killed in the 4:15 a.m. crash near Old Cape Road in the Reynoldsville community, according to police. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Meunier was driving a 2013 blue Fiat sedan when her southbound car crossed the center line and struck the front of the 2019 Toyota sedan Swarna was driving.

Three other SIU graduate students were injured in the collision, police said: 23-year-old Yaswanth S. Uppalapati, 24-year-old Kalyan Dorna and 23-year-old Kakumanu Karthik, all of Carbondale.

Karthik suffered lift-threatening injuries, police said.

“We are working to support the families during this incredibly difficult time,” SIU Chancellor Austin Lane said in a statement. “Our thoughts and hearts are with these students and their loved ones.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 10:48 AM.