PICKAWAY – The 911 call came in at 8:01 pm a truck and a semi had collided on 23 Southbound just south of the Sofidel Plant in Circleville on March 28, 2019. Over the scanner information from responders started pouring in, Pickaway Township told dispatch to prepare a possible Emergency Helicopter because there was two children in the vehicle hurt and the driver was severely pinned. The closest Helicopter was 16 minutes out, and when Chief Brown from Pickaway Township got on scene, he told dispatch to get the Heli in the air and asked for backup. First responders started pouring in Pickaway Sheriff and Ohio State Highway Patrol, Mutual Aide from Circleville Fire/EMT and Green Township Fire/EMT came to assist in one of the longest extraction I’ve ever witnessed.
According to Police, the accident happened when a semi owned by Transco Lines, INC out of Russellville, Arkansas tried to turn onto 23 Northbound from the 26055 US highway 23 South Parts and Service location, and failed to yield to oncoming Southbound traffic and the Black Ford Extended cab pickup driven by Ed Hamond, 79, of Chillicothe hit the trailer. The area is not lit by any overhead lighting, and the semi in this situation has to cross two lanes of U.S. 23 Southbound lanes to enter U.S. 23 Northbound lanes.
According to a witness on the scene that was behind the Black Ford Pickup truck he didn’t see the semi across the southbound lanes and hit the trailer at full speed. “I saw the trailer rock heavily, then I saw the kids trying to climb out the Pickup, and I rushed to their aide,” said the witness.
Multiple people who witnessed the accident or were on scene just after it happened ran to aide the two young boys that were involved in the crash. The two young boys were hurt, but in stable condition, bystanders brought blankets and laid them down beside the semi truck waiting for help to arrive. When the medical helicopter arrived on the scene, the boys were airlifted to Children’s Hospital.
Update: The two boys riding with Hammond are his foster kids one 10 and the other 12.
On the scene, emergency crews used multiple jaws of life instruments including two jaws, three rams one to help lift the semi-trailer off the front of the passenger compartment to try to free the driver. The had to cut the top off the truck off and cut the driver’s side door completely off. They had to use the ram to perform a dash roll to roll the dash up to get the man out. I counted two dozen firefighters and first responders on scene working to remove the man. At around 10:00 pm the crew after working about 2 hours was able to free the man and get him loaded onto emergency Helicopter and taken to Grant hospital in Columbus Ohio.
No information on the condition of the boys or the man was given by time of posting, we will keep you updated. Traffic was shut down in both the North and Southbound lanes for hours. Southbound 23 was shut down until after 11:30 pm.
