Local News - August 2003

Truck takes a tumble

Denver man escapes injury

By ALICE SMITH, LTN Staff Writer

A Denver man escaped serious injury Wednesday after his truck blew a tire and flipped at least three times on an east Lincoln County road.

Kevin Harris, 1655 Amity Church Road, was transported to Lincoln Medical Center in stable condition following the wreck Wednesday afternoon.

Harris’s truck, a 1996 Ford Ranger, was the only vehicle involved in the wreck.

Harris, 18, was traveling west on Christopher Road off Amity Church Road when his front right tire reportedly deflated, state Trooper B.Y. Hill said.

Harris ran off the right side of the road, came back across and lost control, Hill said.

The vehicle then overturned and flipped at least three times, Hill said.

It came to rest on its left side in a ditch.

There were at least 350 feet of skid marks before impact, Hill said. What caused the tire to deflate was undetermined at the time.

Lindsey Houk, who lives on Christopher Road, said someone came running up to her family’s house saying there was a wreck down the road.

Her mother called 911. Houk’s sister called her boyfriend, Jeremy Abernethy, a Pumpkin Center Volunteer firefighter, and alerted him to the crash.

Houk and her mother then ran to the wrecked truck, she said.

“When we got to the car, he wasn’t responding,” she said.

Abernethy, who was nearby, was the first one on the scene, Houk said.

He recognized Harris as a fellow Pumpkin Center firefighter and started talking to him, Houk said. Harris responded, and Abernethy helped him out of the truck.

“He’s lucky to be alive,” she said.

Lincoln County EMS and Pumpkin Center Volunteer Fire Department responded to the wreck.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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