Category Archives: MVA with Rescue

Truck into Tree in Residential Front Yard on Euclid Street

Posted on by

Late on the evening of March 25th, I heard Sullivan PD and EMS dispatched to the 300 block of East Euclid Avenue for a pickup truck involved in an accident, landing in the front yard of a residence, striking a tree and barely missing the front porch. I parked at the top of the hill and walked down to the scene, knowing Sullivan Fire was responding as well. I found Sullivan PD Officers up by the pickup talking to the driver, a female who appeared to be quite distraught, after crashing into a large flowering tree….

…turns out she was alone in the truck and trapped inside the truck, with heavy damage to the front and back of the truck. Firefighter Zach Martel arrived a few minutes later with Rescue Truck 816…the full time crew with Damon Sumpter`s crew, was returning from the Cuba area after helping them with a structure fire…Chief Eric arrived a few seconds behind Zach, who had much of the rescue Jaws and hoses laid out by then…Chief Eric and Zach handled the extrication and then assisted EMS with patient removal.

Stolen Pickup Into Tree Front Yard of 379 E Euclid

While I was taking photos and video, an area resident walked up and told me that his daughter was the driver, he told me that she came to his house up the hill near where I parked, broke into his house while he was at work, got his keys and stole his pickup, then drove it down there, lost control, and wrecked it, completely destroying it…to say he was extremely upset, would be an understatement…I felt sorry for him, he told me that he had just invested about $5K into the transmission….

Tractor Trailer Pile Up in Snowstorm February 3rd, 2022

Posted on by

The evening of the big snowstorm, Sullivan Fire was dispatched to a report of a tractor trailer pileup on eastbound I-44, two miles east of Sullivan. I drove out there, thinking it would be easier to photograph from the North Service Road, because by then law enforcement was re-routing eastbound traffic off the highway to the South Service Road and that could get dicey over there trying to avoid traffic in these conditions….

2022-0203 MVA Semis EB 44 at 227 MM

Luckily Bill Little was on the south side of the pileup and covering for the paper, had a better view of all 9 of the semi`s involved as well, many slid off 44 into the ditch all the way up and down the hill there. The scene is even with Juergens Trailer Court area, just up the hill from Winsel Creek.

MVA Nov 25th, 2018 1500 Block Elmont Road

Posted on by

Around 4 pm on the 25th of November, I drove to the 1500 block of Elmont Road to photograph a two car accident that occurred at the culvert bridge just north of Shady Lane and south of Dorson Circle. After parking on the side of Elmont Road, I walked up to find a red PT Cruiser heavily damaged in the middle of the road at an angle, both bumpers tore off of it, serious damage to the drivers side and rear of the vehicle and one tire and wheel tore off of it. There was a black four door coupe about a hundred feet north of the red car and nosed off the roadway into the ditch. Car parts were strewn all over the roadway and all around the PT Cruiser…..standing there in the midst of it all was a good friend and Franklin County Deputy, Doug Garner….

…he and another deputy were in the area and responded to assist Sullivan PD. One occupant of the PT Cruiser was transported and both occupants of the black coupe were transported to MOBAP Sullivan as well. Chief Eric told me the black coupe was northbound on Elmont Road, approaching the culvert bridge, when the driver of the southbound red PT Cruiser, also approaching the culvert bridge, dropped the right tires off the roadway, brought the Cruiser back on to the roadway, which then caused the Cruiser to spin, bringing the Cruiser out into the path of the northbound black coupe, where both vehicles collided nearly head on…luckily no one was seriously injured in the collision. Both vehicles were towed from the scene with heavy damage….

 

Semi Wraps Around Column Under James K. Schatz Bridge Feb 2018

Posted on by

I was looking out the window watching the sleet and freezing drizzle the evening of February 10th, watching icycles forming on the  branches and elevated surfaces above my yard, wondering how slick the roads were. I received my answer soon enough, the tones dropping for a serious MVA… motor vehicle accident…at the 224.8 mile marker of eastbound I-44. I grabbed my camera and flash, secured Onyx in the truck and creeped down Elmont Road and over the James K. Schatz Bridge…no one was behind me, so I stopped on top of the bridge and looked west…for as far as I could see to the west, there were tractor trailers sitting sideways across both east and westbound lanes of I-44, one was in the westbound driving lane facing east, one sitting next to it facing westbound, beyond those two trucks were even more that were completely crossways and blocking both lanes on both sides of the median…I didn`t think I had enough light to shoot photos from there, or I would have done so. I drove on over to the Alice Street Cutoff going west and attempted to park on the driveway entrance to nowhere on the right before the stop sign at the North Service Road…I sat there a minute and then my truck started sliding sideways back down into Alice Street so I drove on over to Franklin Street and circled back to Hwy 185 and back to the bridge, then turned left on Alice Street and drove over to the North Service Road and then up to Mobil, parking by the car wash, next to several spectators. I locked Onyx inside, with the heater on low and made my way toward the bridge, observing Sullivan Firefighters trying to rescue the driver of a semi that was wrapped around one of the bottom concrete columns of the bridge, the semi on its side and the trailer extending back thru the median and into eastbound lanes…..

…the freezing drizzle was coming down a lot heavier than it first appeared, the flash illuminating it quite well, so I moved under the bridge soon after shooting that one and then just had to clean the lens off to continue shooting. Dave Konys climbed up on the cab to help supervise the extrication of the driver, and she was removed within about twenty minutes and transported to MoBap Sullivan by medics. Once she was removed, I backed up to shoot some scene photos of it….

During the investigation of the multiple vehicle accident, it was determined that she was eastbound on I-44 when another semi crossed over the median and she swerved to miss it, having only a split second to decide due to the weather, and her semi rolled to its side and struck the column of the bridge, trapping her inside the cab. Modot was on scene during the rescue and in touch with bridge inspectors soon after. As I was leaving the scene, I saw three very large semi wreckers approaching the scene from the West Overpass…while it would have been interesting to see how they removed it from the bridge, it was cold out and it was def going to take them some time to do so, plus there were many other semi`s blocking both lanes of I-44…and it was obviously going to take law enforcement awhile to re-open both lanes of I-44. I overheard radio traffic while there, Bourbon FD was assisting law enforcement at the Bourbon Overpass, re-routing eastbound traffic to the South Service Road. It would be a long night for all first responders and support staff on scene. Good job by all involved !!