Published: October 02, 2009 06:18 pm      

Henryville man in critical condition after wreck

Driver thought dead, police say crash scene ‘one of the worst’

A Henryville man was listed in critical condition at University Hospital on Friday night after he was transported by Stat Flight Air Ambulance.

Clinton A. Dotson, 23, was unconscious when first responders were called to the scene at 2:23 p.m. Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden said officers at first did not think the driver was alive.

The accident occurred about a half mile south of Beagle Club Road on U.S. 31 in Henryville.

It took at least 20 minutes for Dotson to be extricated from the vehicle, and paramedics on the scene had to treat him before he could be transported by helicopter, Maj. Chuck Adams with the Clark County Sheriff’s Department said.

Adams said Dotson was driving a Ford Contour southbound and lost control, driving off the left side of the roadway. He then apparently overcorrected and drove off the right side of the road and crashed into an embankment, colliding with a tree.

“It appears that speed is a factor from witness statements,” Adams said.

A routine blood-alcohol test was requested.

“Officers there said the car was one of the worst they had ever seen,” Adams said. “He looked pretty bad.”

No one else was involved in the accident.