Violent, speed-fueled Tulsa crash leaves 1 dead, 3 hospitalized
BY ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Friday, October 12, 2012
10/12/12 at 5:07 AM
One person died and three others were being treated at area hospitals after a violent, high-speed crash Thursday evening on busy South Harvard Avenue.
Police said three young men had to be extricated from a pickup that came to rest upside down with its bed rammed into a utility pole near 54th Street.
The pickup had traveled nearly 300 yards south of where it clipped a curb and then the side of a bridge before it went airborne, rolled and then slid.
A fourth man transported to a hospital was the occupant of a second vehicle involved in the collision, which occurred about 6:50 p.m.
Elise Cruchon said she was driving ahead of the pickup and witnessed the dramatic crash in her rearview mirror.
"It was like a tornado had picked something up," she said. "It was airborne and turning over and over and over. It was so high it was crazy.
"Then I saw it land on its top and start spinning and sliding," she said.
"I almost rear-ended the car in front of me; it was coming so fast, and we were slowing down to turn. I just whipped around the car in front of me."
Police Sgt. Brian Carlisle said investigators believe that the pickup had been involved in a hit-and-run collision on Harvard just north of Interstate 44 in the moments before the fatal crash.
"I don't know if there was a medical emergency or if they were fleeing the scene of the initial collision," he said.
"Due to the high rate of speed, it continued on for quite a ways, so there is a long field of debris to be measured (by traffic investigators) and cleaned up."
EMSA spokeswoman Kelli Bruer said an 18-year-old man in fair condition and a 25-year-old man in serious condition were taken to St. Francis Hospital, and a 19-year-old man and a 57-year-old man, both in fair condition, were taken to St. John Medical Center.
Police did not release the names of the deceased or injured.
Original Print Headline: Violent, speed-fueled crash leaves 1 dead, 3 hospitalized
Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com
