Springdale police and fire department personnel responded to a two-vehicle accident Sunday afternoon on the 4200 block of South Thompson Street.
A green pickup truck collided head-on with an 18-wheeler with the front end of the truck getting wedged underneath the front bumper of the 18-wheeler. A 5NEWS reporter said the driver was still in the pickup truck and a stretcher was seen right next to the pickup truck as personnel worked the scene.
"Looks like he's pinned in the truck," said Evelyn Provost, the grandmother of 18-wheeler's passenger. "I think he's very hurt."
The driver of the 18-wheeler was uninjured but his daughter, a passenger in the 18-wheeler, was taken by other family members to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.
"The green truck pulled out and hit the truck driver, which is my son-in-law," Provost said. "He was bringing my grandaughter home."
The driver of the pickup truck was taken to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville after the Jaws of Life were used to help remove him from the truck.
"It was a challenging rescue scenario," said Battalion Chief Blake Holt. "It required hydraulics and electric power tools to get him extricated."
The crash left oil and other fluids on the street that could make it slick.
"That would be a danger so we worked to clean up as much as we can," Holt said.
The accident happened at approximately 5 p.m. in front of Furniture Row and closed northbound traffic at the intersection of Shady Grove Road and South Thompson, also known at Highway 71 Business, for more than one hour. Southbound traffic was restricted to one lane.
Jeremy Seymour, who works at Furniture Row, said he heard the crash.
"We were inside working and all the sudden we heard a loud bang," Seymour said. "We thought it was lightning."
Seymour said his boss called 911 and said dispatch was flooded with calls.
"They said that they were on their way and that actually the lines were getting all tied up because so many people were calling," Seymour said.
The driver of the pick up truck suffered non-life threatening injuries and the accident is under investigation.
