Kentucky child airlifted to hospital after multiple crashes leave 1 dead, 2 injured
One person is dead and two are seriously injured after multiple car crashes occurred within about a mile of each other in Laurel County Thursday morning, according to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office.
Carly Anne Bell, a 23-year-old from Indianapolis, was driving a Jeep SUV that lost control on the Hal Rogers Parkway, crossed into oncoming traffic and sideswiped a tractor-trailer, according to investigators. The car hit a guardrail and wound up back in oncoming traffic, where it hit a second tractor-trailer, investigators said.
Bell was seriously injured and was airlifted to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
Neither tractor-trailer driver was injured. The Jeep wound up on its side in the middle of the roadway and the tractor-trailers stopped on the shoulder of the Hal Rogers Parkway, according to investigators.
The traffic caused by the first accident led to a fatal crash not long after. It was another three-car crash. A tractor-trailer driver “failed to observe” the slow and stopped traffic from the earlier accident and ran into a stopped Chevrolet SUV, according to investigators. This ran the SUV into a flatbed truck in front of it and killed the SUV’s driver, the sheriff’s office said.
Ashley Megan Estes, 27, of Williamsburg, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 3-year-old in the car had serious injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. She was airlifted to UK Chandler Hospital. The tractor-trailer driver and flatbed truck driver were both unharmed.
Greg Acciardo, public information officer at the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office, said evidence was being compiled to present to a grand jury against the tractor-trailer driver in the crash that killed Estes. The sheriff’s office did not plan to pursue legal action against anyone in the first crash, Acciardo said.
The parkway was opened back up just after 3 p.m. Thursday, the sheriff’s office said. Acciardo said Friday morning that both victims who were airlifted to the hospital were still in serious condition but were expected to recover.
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 8:10 AM.