4 Sedalia residents killed in single-car crash

Four central Missouri residents are dead after their car went off the side of the highway, struck a ditch and tree and became engulfed in flames.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says 25-year-old Dmitriy Banakh was driving a 2007 Audi when his car went off the left side of Route B in Pettis County at 6:29 a.m. Sunday and crashed.

Banakh and his passengers — 19-year-old Angelika Franchuk, 16-year-old Anna Morgunenko and 20-year-old Daniel Morgunenko — were pronounced dead at the scene.

Their deaths put Missouri’s highway fatality rate so far this year at 19.