Coffee blamed for I-39 accident

Sipping on a cup of coffee usually doesn’t distract you too much when you’re behind the wheel, unless you start choking.

Police say that’s what happened to Melvin Wilder of Oglesby late Saturday morning.  He was drinking coffee and started choking while driving a semi south on I-39 just south of Route 52.  He lost control of his truck and hit an embankment underneath North 31 Road.  The truck overturned, shutting down the southbound lanes.

Wilder was taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital.