Published Sept. 16, 1992 in the Lexington Herald Leader

Ambulance in truck's path in fatal wreck

By LEE MUELLER
Lexington Herald Leader Eastern Kentucky Bureau

PAINTSVILLE — A Magoffin County ambulance was on or across the center line of U.S. 460 on Monday when it collided head-on with a loaded coal truck, a state police investigator said yesterday.

Four people died in the fiery crash, which Oil Springs firefighter Tommy Williams called "the worst wreck ever" since the two- and three-lane route between Salyersville and Paintsville opened in 1979.

There were no survivors. Johnson County Coroner J.R. Frisby yesterday identified the victims.

• Issac Elijah "Ligie" Jude, 51, of Pilgrim in Martin County, driver and owner of the coal truck.
• James E. Lowe, 21, of Denver in Johnson County, and Johnnie Vanderpool, 29, of Salyersville, employees of Magoffin County G&B Ambulance Service.

Investigators were unable to determine who was driving the ambulance, Frisby said. "It just came apart and disintegrated."

• Margaret Bailey, 30, of Salyersville, being taken home from Paintsville after what sister-in-law Wanda Bailey termed a checkup at Dr. E.E. Musgrave's office.

Detective Paul Estep of the Paintsville state police post said the deaths marked the "13th or 14th" traffic fatalities in the post's five county area since Aug. 30.

Estep said evidence indicated that the westbound ambulance was on or over the center line on a two-lane section of U.S. 460 near the Johnson-Magoffin county line when the vehicles collided on a long gradual curve at 5:15 p.m. Monday.

He discounted a report that the ambulance was attempting to pass another vehicle before the wreck.

The loaded 18-wheel coal truck smashed into the ambulance, driving it backward for 100 feet off the road and into a ditch. The truck cab nearly flattened the smaller vehicle beneath it, while the trailer overturned, spilling coal.

Frisby ordered autopsies yesterday on all four victims. There was no indication that alcohol was involved in the accident, he said.

Betty Fletcher, the owner of the Salyersville-based ambulance service, said yesterday investigators have not told her who was at fault.

"There's got to be some bitterness here, and we're trying to handle it as carefully as we can," said Fletcher.

Jude took a 21-mile detour Monday through Magoffin and Johnson counties along Ky. 114 and U.S. 460 because state officials closed a Prestonsburg bridge on U.S. 23 to northbound coal traffic last year, said Garland Mills, who drove one of Jude's two coal trucks.

Williams, the Oil Springs firefighter, said several coal truck wrecks occurred on the road in the last year.

"They drive too fast on that road for it to be a two-lane highway," Williams said.

KENTUCKY EMS MEMORIAL

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