JEFFERSON COUNTY — A trucker has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in a chain-reaction crash Sunday afternoon that killed three women and injured four other people on Interstate 55.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said the 45-year-old man from Greensburg, Louisiana, was driving the tractor-trailer that slammed into the back of traffic that had slowed on northbound I-55 near Festus.

The trucker wasn't paying attention and didn't notice the slow-moving traffic, the patrol said in a report Monday.

He was arrested on suspicion of three counts of involuntary manslaughter and was being held in the Jefferson County jail on Monday morning. He is scheduled to be released Monday afternoon unless charges are filed.

The Highway Patrol refused to release the names of the three people who died.

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