Two people driving cars were killed in the accident and twenty were injured and sent to the hospital. An ambulance driver told Fire Chief Tony Sullivan that four of the injured had suffered life-threatening injuries. The Life Flight helicopter from Memorial Hospital was called to the scene and flew the two people with the worst injuries to the trauma center in Statesville, 50 miles from the crash site. All five of Princeton’s ambulances were on the scene, along with ambulances from four neighboring cities.
The accident happened on the northbound lanes of Interstate 790, on the western edge of Princeton, at 6:45 this morning. The Princeton Police Department is not done investigating, yet, but at this time they believe that two tractor trailers collided and started a chain reaction crash. According to Sergeant Albert Wei, of the PPD, a total of four tractor trailers and 14 cars were involved.
“One of the tractor trailers was a tanker hauling diesel fuel, “said Wei. “It was very lucky that it didn’t roll over, or dump any fuel or catch fire. The truck part of the tanker was damaged when a car hit it, but the truck driver managed to get it stopped along the side of the road.” Sullivan told reporters that the crash site looked like something from a war zone when he arrived, with bodies laying along the road, people covered with blood sitting next to their cars, emergency workers running from place to place trying to help the injured, and sirens wailing in the distance as more fire trucks and ambulances were called. “I’ve never seen anything that bad in the 18 ½ years I’ve been with the Fire Department,” he said. Sullivan and his firefighters had to cut the roofs off of three cars to free drivers and passengers trapped inside. And, according to Wei, the police officers on the scene were having trouble figuring out which people were from which vehicles and who was driving or riding.
The accident closed the entire highway, north and south. Rush hour traffic was blocked up on Interstate 690 for three hours, due to the extra commuters forced to use it instead of I-790, which was still closed at 10 a.m., with no promise of being open soon.
Your headline definitely caught my attention! You organized that information really well with order of importance. Maybe be careful of how long your paragraphs get, the fourth paragraph especially was hard to read. Otherwise, it looks good!
ReplyDeleteI was also intrigued instantly by the headline. I think it was a little long though, I don't think we needed to include every detail of the story, however how you organized it did make it easier to read. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYour lead was very good, I wanted to read on. In reading your report, I realized my own lacked excitment.
ReplyDeleteI liked your lead, but how can people be fatally wounded? If your wound is fatal, you are dead, and that would make six dead. I enjoyed reading the different quotes that you included from the book, and I think they add a nice human touch to the story.
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