Two injured as emergency crews respond to third serious wreck on I-22 in one week

A Sunday morning collision left two men injured and required extensive extrication efforts.

New Albany Fire Chief Mark Whiteside said that just after 8:30 a.m. Sunday, fire and rescue crews were dispatched to a two-vehicle wreck at the 67 mile marker in the westbound lanes of I-22.

Crews arrived and found a box van off the road in the edge of the woods with the driver trapped inside. The second vehicle was a pickup truck sitting off in the ditch with its driver also entrapped.

“Due to the severity of the entrapment in the box-style van in the woods, New Albany called for their second rescue truck for additional manpower and equipment,” Whiteside said. “Due to an excessive amount of debris in the roadway, both lanes were shut down.”

Crews removed the driver of the small pickup truck and a Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County ambulance crew took over patient care transporting the patient. Crews also were working on removing the patient from the box van.

The patient was removed and was flown from the scene by Hospital Wing. The extent of the injuries was not known at the time of this report.

“It took an additional amount of time to remove the box van and clean the roadway before traffic could be allowed to travel through the scene,” Whiteside said. “This is the third accident in a week requiring fire or rescue on Interstate 22. These accidents along with others from previous weeks on the Interstate just remind us to reiterate the message of please drive safely, be alert, prepared, and watch for others.”