RATCLIFF, Bradley - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

An 18-year-old Kingman man lay dead in the wreckage of his truck for several hours before fishermen discovered the accident. Bradley Ratcliff was pronounced dead at the scene of internal injuries by Vermillion County Deputy Coroner Rick Giovanini. He placed the time of death at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 31, and said Ratcliff apparently had been unconscious from the time of the accident until he died.

  A passenger in the Ratcliff vehicle, 30-year-old Lester Lowe, was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Danville, Illinois where he is listed in stable condition.  According to investigators, Ratcliff and Lowe were returning from a construction site in Peoria, Illinois. They had left the area at 1 a.m. and around 4 a.m., about four miles east of the Illinois state line on Interstate 74, Ratcliff apparently fell asleep at the wheel as the truck traveled east. The truck veered off the south side of the interstate, went 330 feet and then hit a cement culvert. It turned end over end down a 75 feet embankment and landed on its wheels in weeds near a creek bed, obscuring the accident scene from view.

  The accident was discovered by fishermen about 3:15 p.m., some 12 hours after the crash.

  Ratcliff was born November 22, 1963 in Crawfordsville, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry George Ratcliff. He was employed by Lowe Construction of Ladoga and graduated last May from Grace Academy near Covington. He attended Kingman Methodist Church.

  Survivors include his parents; two sisters, Mrs. Debbie Jeffers, serving with the Navy in Jacksonville, Florida, and Dottie, at home; and two brothers, Bruce, who was his twin, and Bryan, both at home.

  Services were Aug. 3 at Woodrow Funeral Home in Kingman with Rev. Dennis Keefer officiating. Burial was in Kingman Fraternal Cemetery. – thanks to S