18-wheeler crash, 1 injured

|Caleb Worrell, Jones County Fire Council

JONES COUNTY, Miss. - A two vehicle accident Friday afternoon left one person injured and traffic slowed. At around 2:05 p.m., units from Shady Grove and Sharon Volunteer Fire Departments responded to the scene of the accident at the intersection of Highway 15 North and Trace Road. It was initially stated that the 18-wheeler, which was hauling a flammable gas, was leaking due to the wreck. However, it was later confirmed that the leakage on the roadway was from the pickup truck, and the 18-wheeler had not leaked any fuel. When firefighters arrived on scene, they found the 18-wheeler to the shoulder of the highway and the pickup truck sitting in the middle of one lane of the highway, blocking that lane of traffic. The pickup truck sustained extensive damage to its front-end and the 18-wheeler sustained minimal damage to the driver's side rear of the trailer.

It was stated that the driver of the pickup truck was trapped in the vehicle, but firefighters were able to extricate without the use of hydraulic power tools. The pickup driver sustained what was believed to be minor injuries and was transported by EMServ ambulance to South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel for treatment. The 18-wheeler driver appeared to be uninjured.

Traffic was slowed and shutdown intermittently during the entire rescue and cleanup process, which lasted about an hour.