The Missouri Highway Patrol says that a truck accident near Moberly, Missouri, injured eight people last Thursday night. The wreck was reported around 11:00 p.m. on U.S. 24. Officials say that a truck slammed into the rear-end of a van carrying a number of people from a traveling circus troupe.

The van was part of a caravan associated with the Whirling Brothers circus. The circus performers were scheduled to appear in Columbia, Missouri, on Monday. The Missouri Highway Patrol says that eight people in the van sustained some level of personal injury in the truck accident.

Most of the injuries apparently were fairly minor for a highway accident. However, one of the circus performers suffered what officials are characterizing as moderate injuries. She was taken to a Columbia, Missouri, hospital for treatment.

Officials believe that the circus caravan was traveling at about 45 miles per hour when the Mack truck approached from behind the circus vehicles.

Rear-end crashes are a fairly common form of motor vehicle wreck. The causes of a rear-end collision can seem countless. But, frequently inattentiveness of a driver may be involved. These kinds of crashes are common when traffic snarls develop and a driver fails to recognize traffic ahead has slowed. However, a rear-end accident can occur when no other traffic is around and two vehicles are traveling in the same direction.

Accident victims in these kinds of crashes can suffer a wide range of injuries, including what many people know as “soft-tissue” types of injuries. But the forces involved can also produce a full range of injury types, ranging from scrapes and bruises to severe injuries. Head trauma, fatal injuries, broken bones and internal injuries are also possible.

Source: KMOX, “Eight Injured in Mo. Crash Involving Traveling Circus,” Sept. 6, 2013