LAWRENCE CO., Ill.—Two unfortunate vehicle overturns this weekend (specifically Sunday, July 13, 2014) involved three young Lawrence County men and have resulted in the hospitalization of two of them.
From Trevor Winkles Facebook page
The first incident occurred at 3:48 a.m. Sunday in the area of Johnson Farms in the south part of Lawrence County; the farm situated west of Sand Barrens corner off Illinois Route 1.
Dustin Winkles, in a good-humored selfie from his Facebook page yesterday
According to Lawrence County Sheriff Russell Adams, a Jeep being driven by Trevor Winkles, 20, of St. Francisville, was turning on a lease road which leads to a lake off the blacktop in the vicinity of Johnson Farms, when the Jeep overturned and Trevor’s brother Dustin Winkles, 23, also of St. F, fell out of the vehicle and the Jeep overturned, landing atop Dustin and trapping him.
Adams said Trevor was able to call emergency 911 and the Lawrence-Allison Fire and Rescue responded. Fortunately, Dustin’s injuries were not life-threatening; Adams said Dustin was alert and talking the entire time the operation was being conducted, which amounted to the crew doing the very tedious work of removing the Jeep from atop the man in such a way that they could pull him out without it falling back on him and crushing him. Adams remarked that it took awhile to accomplish this.
They were able to remove Dustin and transported him to a waiting helicopter at the nearby Mt. Carmel Airport, and he was air-evac’d out with possible serious injuries. Adams didn’t have Dustin’s condition as of this morning; however, on his Facebook page, Dustin is reporting that he did sustain a broken vertebra in his neck, which ended up not being so serious that he couldn’t walk or move; he’s just going to have to be careful with it apparently. Adams said there was no alcohol or any other intervening factor in the rollover; it was just one of those things that sometimes happens with Jeeps.
From Logan Reynolds’ Facebook page
A similar occurrence took place about an hour and a half after the first rollover, this one in the Westport area on the eastern side of the county.
There, Logan Reynolds, 21, whom Adams said resides about a half-mile away from the crash site, rolled over a 1992 Jeep he was driving at 5:26 a.m. yesterday, this occurring in front of the storage units there at Westport. The sheriff’s department was able to get Reynolds air evac’d out of that scene as well. Adams stated that like the Winkles accident, there was no contributing factor such as alcohol or drugs, remarking “Logan is a good kid, so we knew that wouldn’t be the case.” There’s been no word on his condition nor where he was flown after the accident.
Authorities are still examining both rollovers; check back for updates.