On Saturday morning at approximately 4:15, the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office, Clarkson Fire Department and EMS responded to 999 Millerstown Road on the report of a vehicle on fire.
Upon EMS and Deputy Rance Whobrey arriving on the scene, they found a GMC Yukon with its engine compartment and parts of the passenger compartment engulfed in flames. The driver of the vehicle, 39-year-old Jimmy Ray Logsdon, of Clarkson, was trapped inside the burning vehicle, which had crashed head-on into the back of a nearly 28,000 pound crane truck.
EMS personnel Jayme Pharis and Jordan Hayse used a fire extinguisher to put out the raging flames, which reached 15 to 20 feet in the air, with EMS’s quick arrival and action likely saving Logsdon’s life.
Arriving soon after EMS, Clarkson fire personnel used the “jaws of life” to extricate Logsdon from the vehicle in an effort that took about 20 minutes. Fire personnel initially cut off the driver’s side door of the Yukon, but Logsdon remained trapped and unable to move his lower extremities because the dash and floorboard area of the GMC had been pushed toward the driver’s seat due to the impact of the collision.
After Logsdon was freed, he was transported by EMS to the Clarkson ball fields where he was airlifted to University of Louisville Hospital.
An inspection of the scene showed that Logsdon, traveling east on Millerstown Road, left the roadway, driving in a straight line through the front yard of the residence at 974 Millerstown, before striking the crane truck that was parked in an extended driveway area of 999 Millerstown Road.
The Yukon traveled 174 feet off the road before hitting the crane truck.
There were no brakes marks either on Millerstown Road or before the GMC struck the crane truck in a high-impact collision that moved the crane truck approximately three-feet.
Somewhat miraculously, Logsdon, who was alert immediately after the accident, was diagnosed with only slight burns on his face and arms and was released from U of L Hospital late Saturday morning.
The crane truck suffered only minor damage in the collision.
Clarkson firefighters cutting Logsdon out of the Yukon
