A Moselle man and his wife were pinned under their minivan until nearby residents and volunteer firefighters arrived to assist them after they crashed coming out of a curve on Shady Grove-Moss Road early Saturday afternoon.
Kenny Daniel Sears, 46, of Moselle was airlifted by LifeFlight helicopter, which landed in a lot next to Jackie and Allen Hicks’ house and took the patient from an EMServ ambulance to Forrest General Hospital. Shana McDonnieal, 37, of Ellisville was taken to South Central Regional Medical Center by EMServ and later transferred to Forrest General. Both were suffering from what were described as life-threatening injuries. On Monday, Sears was listed in critical condition and McDonnieal was in serious condition, a hospital spokesman said.
Sears was the driver and McDonnieal was the passenger, according to the accident report.
Shelby Baker, 25, and his wife Lauren, 24, were outside when the northbound Oldsmobile Silhouette came around the curve, crossed the south-bound lane and skidded on its side into a bank of trees. Volunteer firefighter Cody Flynn was at their house, and they rushed to the scene to check on the victims.
“His head was pinned between the ground and the minivan,” Lauren Baker said, and the woman was also partially trapped underneath the vehicle.
They knew they had to get the pressure off the victims, so Shelby Baker rushed back to his house and got his Chevrolet four-wheel-drive pickup. Volunteer firefighters were arriving at the same time he got back, and they hooked his winch to the undercarriage of the minivan and pulled it off the victims.
“We used the winch to lift it and put blocks under the vehicle to stabilize it,” said Sharon Fire Chief Mike Hodge.
The woman was partially ejected near the front of the vehicle. She was “alert and moving … she just wanted out,” Hodge said and the man was responsive “but cut up and bloody” at the rear of the vehicle.
It was the second time in a three-day stretch that a nearby resident helped get a vehicle off a trapped victim. In Sandersville on Thursday, Toby Poore used a tractor and chain to help get an SUV off the arm of a woman who had crashed off the side of Sandersville-Pleasant Grove Road.
Shelby Baker said he was glad that he was there and able to assist.
“I’ll try to help anyone I can,” he said. “I’d want someone to do it for me or my wife.”
County Fire Coordinator Dan McKenna and the Jones County Sheriff’s Department responded, along with Investigator Wayne Black of the Jones County District Attorney’s Office.
The cause of the accident was under investigation, but the smell of alcohol was detected in the vehicle, according to the report.
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