Published: June 25, 2008 05:47 am      

Two injured in wreck north of Mooreland

A Seiling man is listed in serious condition after being ejected during a rollover accident that occurred north of Mooreland on Oklahoma Highway 50 Tuesday afternoon.

Corey Wayne Hurt, 19, was flown by Air Evac to OU Medical Center, where he was admitted with head, leg, arm and internal trunk injuries, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

April Lee Thiesing, 18, of Alva, was also injured in the accident and was originally transported to Woodward Regional Hospital, OHP said. However, she was later transported to McBride Clinic in Oklahoma City, where she was admitted with arm injuries, OHP said, noting that she is listed in stable condition.

Hurt was driving a 1998 Ford Explorer southbound on Highway 50 around 3 p.m. when he apparently fell asleep, causing the vehicle to run off the left side of the road, OHP said.

The vehicle then vaulted over a culvert and rolled three complete times before coming to a rest on its wheels, OHP said.

Hurt, who was not wearing his seatbelt, was ejected out of the driver’s side window, OHP said. Thiesing was wearing her seatbelt.

When the Explorer first began to drift left, truck driver Leroy Swenson, who was driving behind Hurt and Thiesing, said he thought the car was “just avoiding something in the road.”

However, he said he quickly realized it was something more serious when the car left the roadway and began to roll.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be good,” he said, noting that he had immediately called for help.

“I made a call to Freedom to get an ambulance down here,” he said. “I guess they called Woodward.”

Even though he knew emergency personnel would soon be on the way, Swenson still pulled over his rig to see what he could do to help.

As “other guys showed up to take care of (Hurt),” Swenson did what he could to help Thiesing who was still in the mangled Explorer.

“I was just trying to help her, keep her calm,” he said, noting that he kept telling her to “relax and that the ambulance was coming.”

Even when emergency personnel arrived, Swenson stuck around, helping to load Thiesing onto a backboard and carry her to a waiting ambulance.

The truck driver noted that he had no choice but to help out.

“Something like that, I ain’t driving by, especially when it happened right in front of me,” he said.

“I just hope they’re alright,” Swenson said. “That’s all that matters.”