Accident on I-40 leaves three injured
An accident around the 228 East bound mile-marker of I-40 on Wednesday saw three injured motorists sent to the Forrest City Medical Center.
According to Forrest City Fire Department Chief Shane Dallas, both the FCFD and the Palestine Fire Department responded to the accident.
“We received a call from Arkansas State Police Troop D about the accident around the 228 mile marker of I-40 at about 8:15 a.m. on Wednesday,” said Dallas. “The accident occurred in the East bound lanes of I-40 just West of Palestine. The Palestine Fire
Department responded to the scene as well. We were there roughly two hours.”
Dallas stated that in the accident one motorist was sent to the hospital in possible serious condition.
“All in all, my count from last night and what I was told, there were 12 semi-trucks and four passenger vehicles involved in the whole incident out there,” said Dallas. “We had three that were injured during the accident. All three were transferred by ambulance to the hospital and of those three, one may be in serious condition.”
According to Dallas, the weather conditions that people were driving through on Wednesday was the cause of the pile up.
“There was heavy fog and it appears that one of the semi’s may have run off into the median and as traffic slowed, more and more vehicles began colliding as people were driving faster than they could see in front of them,” said Dallas. “They didn’t have time to stop and they began to pile up. We had to extricate someone out of a car and help EMS get people into ambulances.”
Dallas stated that drivers need to be careful about how they drive in terrible weather conditions such as heavy rain, snow and fog.
“It is incredible that there were only three injuries out of the entire ordeal,” said Dallas. “It was a pretty bad deal. People need to remember that whether it is rain, snow, fog or whatever it is, if visibility is bad, slow down. It doesn’t matter if the speed limit says 70 or 75 miles per hour. If you can’t see something when it is there, it’s too dangerous. If the weather is like it has been the last two days, slow down, take your time, leave a little sooner and get there safely. If you can’t see, you can’t stop.”