Modern-Day Oregon Trail Tragedy

TUL- Shuqualak, Miss. – Bob Skelding, who last August left his Deerfield, NH home to take a cross-country trip in a homemade wagon pulled by his four Percheron horses, was seriously injured yesteday morning when he was rear-ended by an 18-wheel tanker truck.

Skelding, 49, suffered a head injury and late Tuesday night was in critical condition at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Miss., according to his former wife, Suzanne. She said their children, Daniel, 23, and Lisa, 22, are heading to Mississippi to be with their dad.

Two of his horses -- Deedee and Dolly -- were killed in the 11:32 a.m. wreck on U.S. Highway 45 in Shuqualak, a rural town in eastern Mississippi. The driver of the rig was not hurt.

S/Sgt. Michael Cain of the Mississippi Highway Patrol said medical personnel told investigators Skelding did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

The crash shut down the highway for about 1 1/2 hours.
"There isn't one piece of that wagon that is usable," said Cain of the wreck in which Skelding's horse-drawn wagon was demolished.

The driver of the 18-wheeler, which was traveling with another tanker, apparently did not realize the horse-drawn wagon ahead of him was traveling at an extremely slow speed, according to Cain. The wagon was heading south in a travel lane of the four-lane, divided highway which, the highway patrol officer said is not illegal in Mississippi.

The trucker, "for whatever reason did not realize he was going extremely slow and hit him in the rear," Cain said. The posted speed on the highway is 65 mph.

Skelding had traveled 1,747 miles through nine states in his horse-drawn wagon when the tragic crash happened.