By Richelle Bailey
The McDowell News
CROOKED CREEK, N.C. — Kirk Lunsford has a long path to recovery, but he thanks God he’s still alive.
A five-year volunteer firefighter with Crooked Creek Fire Department, Lunsford, 38, happened upon a wreck involving an overturned tractor-trailer on Interstate 40 Friday morning in the pouring rain.
Lunsford, Crooked Creek’s First Responder of the Year for the past two years, jumped into rescuer mode.
He quickly suited up in his turnout gear and crossed the interstate lanes to check on the truck driver and his passenger.
He got them out of the rig and, as he attempted to escort them back to his pickup truck parked on the shoulder of the road, something happened that could change his life forever.
A 1996 Honda driven by Shawn Buchanan, 22, of Old Linville Road in Marion came up behind a slower-moving vehicle in the center lane, cut to the left, went out of control, pinned Lunsford between the Honda and the concrete barrier and dragged him several feet, according to Trooper J.E. Dowdle of the N.C. Highway Patrol.
“Both of his legs were crushed,” said Lunsford’s wife Shawnah from his hospital room at Memorial Mission Sunday. “They are really worried about his left leg. They are operating on it (Monday morning). We just have to wait and see how that goes.”
She added that her husband also broke his left hand and required eight staples to close a gash in his head. Doctors haven’t told them how long Kirk could be hospitalized, but they have said it could be “months and months” before he’s active again, according to Shawnah.
Despite it all, Kirk, the father of three and a self-employed landscaper, is “doing pretty good,” his wife stated.
“Everything happens for a reason,” said Shawnah. “We don’t blame that boy. It was an accident. We just thank God because it could have been so much worse. I also want to thank the community for their prayers and ask them to continue to pray.”
Buchanan’s Honda hit the median barrier, but he was not injured. Dowdle charged him with reckless driving.
“He was going about 60 and it was raining heavily at the time,” the trooper stated.
All the commotion started at 8:20 a.m., when Thomas Eugene Mills, 28, of Rocky Mount was driving the 2006 Freightliner tractor-trailer east on I-40, exceeding the speed limit, according to Trooper C.E. Kirkpatrick. He added that the transfer struck the concrete barrier at the 68 1/2 mile marker, slid 800 feet and overturned onto the median.
The trailer burst open, spilling the rig’s load of produce, which was later disposed of at the county landfill.
The wreck closed two eastbound lanes of I-40, choking traffic to one lane, for approximately four hours.
Mills; his passenger, 24-year-old Michael Andre Hicks of Chester, S.C.; and Kirk Lunsford were all taken to Memorial Mission Hospital by ambulance. Mills’ and Hicks’ injuries were not life threatening.
Kirkpatrick charged Mills with reckless driving.
The truck was owned by Carolina Cargo of Augusta, Maine.
Copyright 2009