A 64-year-old woman from St. Charles, Missouri was airlifted to a hospital in Springfield after the side-by-side she was driving rolled backward and overturned on a hill in rural Reynolds County Friday evening. Her passenger, a 65-year-old woman from Manchester, was not seriously hurt in the crash, which happened around 7 p.m. off County Road 442 near Redford.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report, the driver had been operating the vehicle northbound on private property along County Road 442 when it came to a stop on a hill, then rolled backward and overturned, MSHP said. The driver suffered serious injuries and was flown to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, while her passenger refused medical treatment at the scene, according to E Communications. KFVS12 was first to report the incident, noting that the passenger’s injuries were described as minor.
Reynolds County’s remote Ozark geography means serious trauma cases like this one typically require an air ambulance to reach a Springfield trauma center, since the nearest major hospital sits more than 100 miles away, per the same account. County Road 442 runs near Redford through timberland and steep terrain close to Sinking Creek and the Black River, an area frequently marketed to side-by-side riders, according to Trulia listings for property in the region.
A Recurring Danger On Reynolds County’s Hills
This is not the first side-by-side tragedy to strike the county. On August 6, 2025, a 38-year-old woman from Annapolis was killed on County Road 360 near Lesterville when her Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000 failed to negotiate a curve, rolled over, and trapped her underneath, according to KSDK. That crash, along with Friday’s rollover, underscores how hilly rural routes across the Ozarks continue to pose a rollover hazard for side-by-side riders…