Both airlifted to Memphis in critical condition
Driver admits to smoking pot, drinking hours before wreck, report says
JONESBORO, Ark. – A semi-truck pulling a trailer pulled out in front of a car Tuesday on Highland Drive in Jonesboro, causing a major wreck and sending two young children to the hospital in critical condition.
At 4:45 PM on Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2017, David Wayne Martin, 54, was driving a white 2016 Freightliner, trailer attached, north on Great Dane when he stopped at the intersection of Highland Drive. The next few moments would be carnage no one involved would ever forget.
At the same time, Evan Haggins was headed eastbound on Highland Drive. He was driving in a red 1997 Chevy Lumina car in the outside lane at an unknown speed, the report with JPD said. That’s when the semi-truck pulled out in front of him. Haggins slammed on his brakes sending the vehicle into a 330 foot skid toward the trailer attached to the Freightliner.
The car made impact with the trailer and continued under the trailer. The roof of the Lumina was smashed, the report said, then torn off the vehicle. Two juvenile passengers were in the backseat as this was taking place. They were critically injured. Hospital Wing and Air Evac were both called to the scene. Both juveniles, ages two and six, were flown to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. They were listed in critical condition at the time of the incident report.
Neither driver was injured in the wreck.
The Jonesboro Sun reported Thursday en route to St. Bernard’s Medical Center for a blood screening, Haggins told police he had drank two and a half beers approximately four-hours before the incident. He also reportedly said he had smoked weed earlier in the day.
Failure to yield by the semi-truck driver was the cause of the wreck, the officer reported.
As of Thursday, the toxicology results were not available. They could take anywhere between three weeks and several months for the toxicology results to come in, JPD’s Public Relations Officer David McDaniel told NEA Report.
(An earlier version of the report incorrectly identified the truck driver as having admitted to ingesting intoxicants. The driver of the car was the one who told police this. NEA Report regrets the error.)
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