The Newport Plain Talk

(c)NPT PHOTO BY NELSON MORAIS From right to left, J.D. Clevenger and Newport Police Department Chief Maurice Shults watch as first responders place Andy Messer, 29, of Newport, on a stretcher. Messer drove his 1988 Thunderbird into the undercarriage of a tractor-trailer blocking eastbound traffic on Highway 25/70 West, on Thursday, Dec. 13. Messer suffered "incapacitating", but not life-threatening injuries in the wreck.

NEWPORT-Three people were injured when a tractor-trailer pulled out and blocked eastbound traffic on West Highway 25/70, near the Victory Lanes bowling alley, on Thursday, Dec. 13, the Newport Police Department reported.

A witness, John Clevenger, told NPD Patrolman Mike Robey that at 8:20 a.m., when thick fog blocked a lot of visibility on the highway, Ruben E. Smith, 50, of Huston, MS. pulled out from the Furniture Palace parking lot, onto Highway 25/70, apparently in an effort to straighten out the tractor-trailer before pulling back into the parking lot, the report stated.

Andy Messer, 29, of 656 Myers Circle, Newport, unable to stop in time, drove a 1988 Ford Thunderbird into the left center portion of the tractor-trailer, clipping a large part of the vehicle's roof on the undercarriage of the tractor-trailer, Robey reported.

For more details, please see the weekend edition of the Newport Plain Talk.