CLINTON -- Two construction workers died Monday and 19 were injured when the brakes in a log truck failed and the truck flipped, spilling logs onto the Archey Creek bridge construction site on U.S. 65 in Clinton, Van Buren County Sheriff Scott Bradley said.
"They were like sitting ducks on the bridge," Bradley said of the dead and injured. "There was nowhere for them to run to get away from the logs."
Authorities did not release the names of the two construction workers who were killed Monday evening pending notification of families, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said.One died at the scene, Bradley said.
Bradley said Jerry Hickman, age unknown, of Van Buren County was driving south on U.S. 65 before 4 p.m. Monday when his brakes failed about a mile north of the bridge that spans Archey Creek, a fork off the Little Red River.
Hickman drove down an incline toward the northern edge of the bridge and then the truck flipped, Bradley said.
"He got up to a good speed when he lost it," Bradley said.
Logs tumbled off the truck and bowled over the workers on the bridge, which is being widened from three lanes to five.
Bradley said there were 25 to 30 workers on the construction site when the accident happened. Rescue teams were hindered from quickly reaching the injured because they had to cross steel rebar rods, he said.
"It was pretty horrific," he said. "We had people trapped under logs, people with broken legs, people with severe head lacerations.
"It was very chaotic."
Ozark Health Medical Center administrator David Deaton said his hospital treated 19 patients in Clinton. Of those, 12 received "major injuries," he said.
Bradley said three construction workers who were more seriously injured were airlifted to other hospitals, and seven others were transported to other medical facilities.
Four remained in the hospital in Clinton and five were treated and released, Deaton said.
Hickman, the driver of the log truck, suffered minor injuries and is expected to fully recover, Bradley said. Hospital workers drew Hickman's blood to see whether alcohol or drugs were in his system, as is customary for any accident, he added.
Because the accident happened near a shift change at the Clinton hospital, there were plenty of physicians available, Deaton said.
"We have a disaster plan, and we ran that smoothly," he said. "Because of the change, we had staff coming in and others stayed to help. We had plenty of health-care workers."
Bradley said no nearby motorists were injured.
"That is very surprising," he said. "There were no cars involved. We had cars that stopped close to the accident, and we've gotten some witness statements."
The sound of the crash startled Bob Galbreath, the owner of Chicora Springs Nursery, which is about an eighth of a mile north of the bridge.
"It was violent enough to shake the frame of the greenhouses," he said. "It sounded like a natural-gas explosion. That's what I thought at first. I thought one of the construction workers hit a gas line."
Daria Smith said she didn't hear the accident while working at the Van Buren County Veterinarian Clinic on the southern edge of the bridge, but she saw rescuers rushing in afterward.
"We heard the ambulances and the firetrucks coming," she said. "They flew in and started helping people."
Bradley said Clinton police and firefighters, along with Van Buren County deputies and state troopers, helped tend to the injured and divert traffic.
Police closed U.S. 65, and traffic backed up for more than a mile toward Leslie.
"It's a bad, bad situation," Clinton Mayor Roger Rorie said Monday afternoon. "Every ambulance and every fire department responder is coming from every direction."
Authorities were still working to clear logs from the bridge Monday night.
Work began on the bridge-widening project in December 2013, said Philip Freyaldenhoven, a project manager for Mobley Contractors Inc. of Morrilton. The work was expected to be completed by late spring of 2015.
"We've had some injuries at construction sites before, but nothing like this," Freyaldenhoven said.
Randy Ort, an Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department spokesman, said the accident was saddening.
"We strive to provide the motoring public with safe and efficient roads," Ort said. "It takes many individuals to make that happen. To lose [any] in the process is devastating."
Information for this article was contributed by Noel Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A section on 06/03/2014