By Echo Menges
The fact that there was no loss of life as a result of the tractor trailer versus pickup truck collision on Highway 6 last week is being called “a miracle” by locals.
The crash occurred three miles east of Edina on Monday morning, June 20, 2022, when a tractor trailer being driven by Larry Howard, 70, of Brashear, MO, collided with a pickup being driven by Linda Early, 79, of rural Edina at approximately 11:15 a.m., according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report.
According to witnesses, the tractor trailer burst into flames immediately after overturning and coming to rest on its side with the driver, Howard, still trapped inside.
Thanks to the fast thinking and arrival of two men who asked to have their names withheld, the driver of the tractor trailer did not perish in the fire.
The good Samaritan father and son duo, age 48 and 17, moved to action immediately following the crash. Both were located at different areas of a nearby property and ran between 30 and 100 yards to the fiery scene.
The 17-year-old had the wherewithal to bring along two fire extinguishers retrieved from a nearby garage.
When the two arrived to help the driver, they fought back the flames with the fire extinguishers enough to kick out the back window, cut the driver from his seat belt and pull him out by his belt strap.
The team pulled the man to safety over a highway covered with the spilled load of soybeans before the fire to the tractor trailer flared back up.
The men were in the right place at exactly the right time as just a hundred yards past or a minute or two later – the driver would have likely succumbed to the flames.
The fiery crash occurred in front of the Pine Valley Auto business.
