Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Feb. 7, 2025 – An ambulance was hit Thursday morning in Jonesboro while transporting a victim from an earlier accident in Bono.
According to the Arkansas Motor Vehicle Crash report from the Arkansas State Police, the incident occurred around 6:22 a.m. Jonesboro Police Officer Jonathan Haggans was dispatched to the accident at the intersection of W. Washington Avenue and S. Gee Street.
JPD arrived at 6:27 a.m. Haggans noted in the report that it was raining and cloudy, and the road conditions were wet, which contributed to the accident.
The ambulance, owned by Emerson Ambulance Services, was transporting a victim of a Bono accident that had happened earlier that morning.
The driver of a 1995 GMC Suburban, 66-year-old Steven Householder of Jonesboro, said he was traveling northbound on S. Gee Street and was entering the intersection when he heard emergency sirens and saw the emergency lights. Householder attempted to stop but collided with the ambulance.
After colliding, he came to rest after striking an iron fence located on the property of 404 S. Gee St., which is owned by Car Today.
The ambulance driver, 52-year-old Tonya McCollum of Paragould, stated she and 24-year-old medic Micheal Wheeler of Corning were traveling eastbound on W. Washington Avenue. McCollum was transporting a patient, 34-year-old Garrett William Sorrell of Gamaliel, to St. Bernards due to being involved in the prior accident in Bono.
McCollum stated that as she approached the intersection, she yelped her siren and blew her horn several times prior to entering the intersection.
Wheeler rode with medics in another Emerson Ambulance that arrived on scene and transported Sorrell to St. Bernards.
Both vehicles were towed from the scene by Keg Towing.
Sorrell was one of five people injured in the Bono incident, which left three others dead.
The original accident happened early Thursday morning around 5:40 a.m. in the Bono Hill vicinity on Highway 63 between Bono and the I-555 Dan Avenue exit.
Among the deceased were John Leroy Lewis, 58, Mountain Home; David Lee Vanwinkle, 63, Winona, MO; and Timothy Collin Foote, 62, West Burlington, IA.
The five injured included Robert Joseph Harris, 35, Greentop, MO; Donald Zachary Williams, 44, Maynard; David Michael Reading, Jr., 29, St. Louis, MO; Jimmy Lee McMullen, 35, Collinsville, OK; and Sorrell.
Lewis occupied a 2005 Dodge Dakota, while all others were occupants of 2016 Ford Transit Van driven by Vanwinkle. The victims in the van were employees of a contractor doing work on the Burlington-Northern Railroad near Sedgwick, according to sources on scene.
Arkansas State Trooper Cody Jackson said the accident happened when the Dodge and the van collided head-on. He also noted that the weather was cloudy, and the road was wet at the time of the accident.
Victims were taken to either St. Bernards Medical Center or NEA Baptist Hospital. The condition of the injured was unknown at that time.