By Staff
FIREFIGHTERS RESPOND Meridian firefighters Tavaras Smith, left foreground, and David Keller, right foreground, attend two victims of six-car pile-up that happened around 4 p.m. Saturday on Interstate 20. The two men, whose names have not been released, were transported to Rush Foundation Hospital. The photograph below shows the back of the car. Photos by Paula Merritt / The Meridian Star.
By Fredie Carmichael/staff writer
March 17, 2002
A Collinsville man who left work about 4 p.m. on Saturday watched his rearview mirror in shock as six vehicles swerved and collided behind him.
Daniel Guy was driving west on Interstate 20 near the 22nd Avenue overpass when the trouble started.
As soon as he topped the hill, Guy noticed a traffic jam forming as cars trying to merge from the on-ramp to his right met westbound interstate traffic.
After the accident, Guy leaned against his car, talking to the owner of the car that rear-ended him. In different surroundings, it could have been two friends visiting after work the one in a blue Mack's Truck shirt and the other shading his eyes with a favorite hat.
Guy's car was the second of six vehicles involved in a pile-up that sent two men from Texas to Rush Foundation Hospital with what emergency officials called "non-life-threatening injuries."
Detective Deano Harper, a spokesman for the Meridian Police Department, said most of the damage was caused when an 18-wheeler slammed into the back of the Texas men's Toyota Camry.
Guy's car, a yellow 1977 Oldsmobile, was hit from behind by a newer model Oldsmobile, which was in turn hit by a pick-up truck. Guy said his car bumped into a white Chevy Tahoe in front of him to complete the six-car pile-up.
Westbound traffic on Interstate 20 was backed up for miles as local firefighters, emergency management officials and police officers sorted out the scene and interviewed the people involved in the crash.
Harper said the two Texas men might have been hurt worse if they hadn't been wearing seatbelts.
Debris at the scene of the crash covered the highway and shoulder glass, broken car parts, clothes spilled from a suitcase and most of a box of Popeye's chicken.