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Mission Road wreck sends 3 to hospitals
By Edward Terry, EditorThree men were seriously injured after a violent collision on Mission Road in Sawmills Wednesday evening near the intersection with Spartan Drive. The two-vehicle crash happened at approximately 7:30 p.m. and brought two medical helicopters to the campus of South Caldwell High School to transport the worst of the three patients. One of the three patients immediately was taken to Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, while the other two were flown out. There were few details about the crash, Highway Patrol Trooper Brad Hyatt said. He did confirm that the crash involved two passenger cars, one of which crossed the center line. The two vehicles came to rest on different sides of the highway and quite a distance apart. No one was thrown from the vehicle, he said, and the patients had to be extricated. One of the passengers that was transported to the hospital by air was not wearing his seatbelt, Hyatt said. The first chopper, identified as Wings from Johnson City, Tenn., landed in the dirt parking lot above Spartan Stadium after 8 p.m. as a crowd of observers gathered on the South Caldwell campus and in the neighborhood along Spartan Drive. The second chopper landed at 8:25 p.m., just after the other aircraft took off. The patient who was loaded into the Med Center Air chopper from Charlotte was moving his arms during transport to the helicopter. He also appeared to be conscious and moving while in the aircraft. It was not clear which hospitals the two choppers transported the patients. In addition to the air crews and the N.C. Highway Patrol, other agencies responding to the scene included Sawmills Fire and Rescue, Hudson Fire and Rescue, Caldwell EMS and Granite Falls Fire Department.
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