[Arkansas Democrat Gazette]--
Two local men were seriously injured when their pick-up truck left the road
and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday morning.
Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after
midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of
Little Rock are listed in serious condition at Baptist Medical Center. The
accident occurred as the two men were returning to Des Arc after a frog
gigging trip. On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pick-up truck headlights
malfunctioned. The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older
model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis
noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his pistol fit perfectly into the
fuse box next to the steering wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet, the
headlights again began to operate properly and the two men proceeded on
east-bound toward the White River bridge. After traveling approximately
twenty miles and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently
overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the right testicle. The vehicle
swerved sharply to the right exiting the pavement and striking a tree. Poole
suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident, but will require
surgery to repair the other wound. Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and
was treated and released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston
shot his _____ off or we might both be dead" stated Wallis. "I've been a
trooper for ten years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me.
I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident happened", said
Snyder. Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife asked how
many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get them from the truck.
And the winner is...
John Pernicky and, friend, Sal Hawkins, of Washington, decided to attend a
local Metallica concert at the Amphitheater at Gorge, Washington. Having no
tickets, but 18 beers among them they sat in the parking lot and after
finishing the beer, decided that it would be easy enough to hop over the
nine foot high fence and sneak into the show. The two friends pulled their
pickup truck over to the fence and the plan was for John, 100 pounds heavier
than Sal, to hop over, and then assist this friend over the fence.
Unfortunately for John, the Fence was a 30 foot drop on the other side.
Having heaved himself over he found himself crashing through a tree, falling
to the ground. His fall was abruptly stopped by a large branch which had
been snagged by his shorts. Dangling from the tree, with one arm broken,
John looked down and saw a group of bushes below him. Figuring the bushes
would break his fall, John removed his pocket knife and proceed to cut away
his shorts to free himself from the tree. When finally free, John crashed
below into holly bushes. The sharp leaves scratched his whole body, and now
being without his shorts he was the unwilling victim of a holly branch
penetrating his rectal cavity. To make matters worse, his pocket knife
proceeded to fall with him and landed three inches into his left thigh.
Seeing his friend in considerable pain and agony, Sal decided to throw him a
rope and pull him to safety. However, weighing about 100 pounds less, he
decided the best course of action would be to tie the rope to the pickup
truck. This is when things went bad. Sal in his drunken state, put the truck
into the wrong gear, and proceeded to press on the gas and crash through the
fence, landing on and killing his friend. Sal was thrown from the truck,
suffered massive internal injuries and died at the scene. Police arrived to
find, a pickup truck with its driver thrown 100 feet from the vehicle and,
upon moving the truck, a half naked man with numerous scratches, a holly
stick up his butt, a knife in his thigh and a pair of shorts dangling from
the trees 25 feet in the air.
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