Published: June 19, 2009 02:07 pm      

Pregnant woman, children rescued from SUV after wreck in Floyd County

Condition of driver, 30, unknown

Interstate 64 eastbound was closed at mile marker 120 in Floyd County after a semitruck smashed a white Ford Escape sports utility vehicle into a rock wall.

Dispatchers received a call at 10:50 a.m., and first responders arrived within three minutes, Detective Capt. Jeff Topping said. Two small children had already been pulled out of the vehicle by state highway workers. They had nonlife threatening injuries.

Kelly Baxter, 30, of New Albany, was trapped inside the vehicle.

“A white Ford Escape was traveling eastbound and passed a semi. Witnesses say it lost control, spun out and struck a guardrail and came back across in front of the semi,” Topping said. “The semi hits it and they get tangled.”

The vehicle was trapped between the truck and a rock wall. It took 31 minutes for the woman to be extricated from the vehicle. She was taken to University Hospital in Louisville. Her condition was not immediately available.

The driver of the semi was Harold Jeanette, 41, of Iowa. He was taken to Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services with nausea. The sports utility vehicle was demolished, Topping said.

“From looking at the wreck, it’s a wonder somebody walked away,” Topping said.

A spokesman for University Hospital said Thursday evening that they had no update on Baxter’s status.