Wisconsin is among the states with particular reason to be mourning the news of the accidental traffic death of award-winning broadcast journalist Richard Threlkeld. The Ripon College graduate who spent 33 years as a news correspondent for CBS and ABC News died late last week when the car he was driving collided with a big-rig truck. He was 74.

Truck accidents are often the source of the worst personal injuries and fatalities. And because of the complexities of the system of how interstate transportation is contracted, blame for truck accidents can be difficult to sort out and assign in order to be sure that victims get the just compensation that they are due.

The accident that claimed Threlkeld's life occurred last Friday. Officials say he was driving on Long Island in New York, where he lived. He was in a 2008 Cooper Mini. At the time of this posting it's not clear exactly what happened. Officials say Threlkeld collided with a propane tanker truck.

Threlkeld was something of the quintessential broadcast journalist with roots in the Midwest. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and grew up in Barrington, Illinois. He graduated from Ripon in 1960 and later received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. Following a typical path for broadcast journalists, he worked at WMT-TV in Cedar Rapids, and WHAS-TV in Kentucky before moving up to stints with the CBS and ABC news networks.

In 33 years at the networks, Threlkeld covered wars, national political campaigns and assassinations. He was among the last Americans in Vietnam who were airlifted out by helicopter from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in 1975 and he reported on the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He is survived by his wife, a brother, two children and two grandchildren.

Source: The New York Times, "Richard Threlkeld, Award-Winning Journalist, Dies at 74," Dennis Hevesi, Jan. 13, 2012