HUMBOLDT — Two people were rushed to area hospitals following a car wreck east of Humboldt near the Marsh Arch Bridge on Monday.
According to Allen County deputy Travis Buck, the passenger, Madison Wilson, was life-flighted from the scene by helicopter and flown to Freeman Hospital in Joplin.
The driver, Alec Nelson, “was taken by ambulance to the Allen County airport, and was flown by a fix-wing flight to another unknown hospital.”
Deputy Buck said that Wilson and Nelson’s vehicle was heading westbound on Bridge Street, when “they crossed over the bridge and left the roadway to the left and collided with the street sign and bridge railing.”
“While starting down the embankment,” Buck added, “it sent the vehicle into a roll in which it rolled one time.”
“We have evidence to show that the vehicle caught fire while the vehicle was rolling,” Buck noted, and then it “landed back on all four tires and the fire resumed.”
“Luckily, law enforcement was pretty close. We were only a few blocks away,” said Buck. “So we were able to respond and pull those subjects from the vehicle.”
FIRST responders likewise got some help from a resident.
According to Buck, “the person who reported the call had stopped to assist, and assisted with getting the passenger out of the vehicle, so we were thankful for that.”
And Buck himself was fortunate, he said, to have “just happened to be there in Humboldt,” which allowed him to arrive first on-scene.
“We’ve got 505 square miles [in Allen County], and I just happened to be five blocks away, so that worked out really well,” Buck said.
The accident remains under investigation.
