Crash in Lee County snarls I-39 traffic

A fatal crash north of Paw Paw shut down southbound Interstate 39 traffic for several hours Wednesday morning.

State troopers believe 44-year-old Rusty Garner of Tennessee was driving drunk when he hit a semi parked on the shoulder of the interstate just before two in the morning.  Garner survived the crash and was flown to a Rockford hospital while two passengers in his SUV were pronounced dead at the scene.  Their names haven’t been released.

Traffic was diverted off of southbound I-39 for about five hours.