Latest Headlines
- Business Alliance Calls For Escambia County To Deed Part of OLF-8 For Light Industrial Use
- New 332 Lot Subdivision Planned For Devine Farm Road In Cantonment
- Man Charged With DUI Manslaughter After Cantonment Boy Dies
- Texas Longhorns Take SEC Soccer Title; Officials Say Escambia County Wins Big
- Northview High School JROTC Honors Veterans
- Escambia County Deputies Involved in Shooting After Armed Suspect Opens Fire
- Pine Meadow Elementary Honors Veterans (With Gallery)
- Lipscomb Elementary School Honors Local Veterans (With Gallery)
- Bratt Elementary School Honors Local Veterans (With Gallery)
- NO. 17 UWF Earns Sixth Straight Win
Highway 97 Accident Injures Three Tuesday Morning
May 26, 2009
(Updated 2:00 p.m.) A single vehicle accident on Highway 97 sent three people to the hospital Tuesday morning.
The accident happened on Highway 97 north of White Ash Road about 9:15 Tuesday morning. Three people were in a 2004 Chevrolet Blazer when the driver lost control, hit a mailbox then a utility pole knocking it to the ground. The Chevy then overturned and slammed into a fence. Bystanders were working to pull a passenger from the smoking vehicle as the first emergency personnel arrived on scene. The Blazer then burst into flames.
The Florida Highway Patrol identified the driver as Barbara Jean McConico, 61 of Pensacola. Passengers in the Blazer were her husband, Gilbert McConico, 50, and Jaquita Allen, 17. All three are from Pensacola and suffered minor injuries in the crash, according to the FHP. They were transported by ambulance to a Pensacola hospital.
Barbara Jean McConico was charged with careless driving, troopers said.
A downed pole and power lines left many in the area without power and kept Highway 97 blocked for over an hour as Gulf Power worked to rebuild the downed lines.
Click here for a complete NorthEscambia.com exclusive gallery of photos that shows the sequence of events as the Blazer bursts into flames, the first fire truck arrives and the fire is extinguished.
The accident is still under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. The Walnut Hill, McDavid and Molino stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, Atmore Ambulance, Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department all responded to the call.
Pictured above: Three people were injured in this accident on Highway 97 Tuesday morning. The Blazer burst into flames shortly after the last passenger was pulled from the wreckage. Pictured below: The first firefighters on scene about to extinguish the flames. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
29 Responses to “Highway 97 Accident Injures Three Tuesday Morning”
I am so glad the driver and passengers are okay. My comment is about Hwy. 97. I travel that road 4 times a day. I drive the speed witch is 55 mph. I have been passed by all can of trucks and cars,going at least 70 to 80 miles mph maybe faster.They have passed on yellow lines and double yellow lines. I have had to run off of road seveal times. I live on a road the speed limited is 45. They have had speed traps the average speed was 70 mph. Are they still speeding yes they are.We have just give up trying to get something done.Seems law abiding people cannot get any thing done. So I am asking you to please slow down. Before you get hurt or some one else does.
Deadly Jobs wrote : “If you want to take the idiotic( silly) stance that Personal protective gear ( boots coat helmet) will not help keep someone safe ( not dying ) than go ahead. That was my whole ( entire) point. Sorry that some people up here dont [sic] understand words that are not even considered ( thought as ) ninth grade vocabulary ( speech).”
Your post (words) sound more like those of a real (true) moron ( idiot).
He also wrote :
“Advice for the guy in the photo gallery. A totaled out vehicle is not worth risking your lungs and/or life. Next time take the time to put on the bunker gear and SCBA that us [sic] taxpayers supply you with [sic]. You’ll thank me in later years when you dont [sic] have to retire on the heart and lung bill.”
Advice for DJ : Next time try not being such a portentous, grandiloquent and overblown windbag. I think you’ll find that you’ll be much better suited.
I’m sorry that you don’t seem to actualise the literary skills of that person that you so boldly strain to impersonate here.
Deadly Jobs is a arm-chair quarterback. He didn’t know the circumstances of the situation he was refering to. Any one can second guess someones actions after the fact. It isn’t a matter of being a hero, it’s about doing what is moraly right. A situation presented itself and the guy in the pic acted. Firefighters in the county wear there PPE’s and do a fine job. You say you have had 30 years experience going to car accidents, were you a by stander or what. If you truly had the experience you claim, you know good and well that you have to check the vehicle thuroughly for trapped victims. Asking the other passengers of the vechicle is a good idea, but you have to take in account that they could possibly be disoriented or in some state of shock. If you have the experience you say you do, you know good and well you still have to check the vehicle. I would hate to know that someone was missed, because someone like you who claims to have the experience, but not the motivation to actually do what has to be done was the first one there. It sound to me like you would take a lot of shortcuts. Maybe you should invest in a scanner and you could actually hear what all was taking place during the time of the incident you are talking about. Knowledge is the key, know what you are talking about before making a comment. Knowing is half the battle.
So what if he is in shorts and a t shirt he did his job and got fire out. At least he wasn’t peeing on it. Welcome to the country paw paw.
Paw Paw
you got into granny’s tonic again i c
Noh8trs, I was just making an observation. I dont know about the working conditions that you speak of…I’ve never worked at the circus.
Scene size up in shorts and a t-shirt, three feet from the hazard…….only up here.
Deadly jobs,
You actually sound like one of the big guy safety men on some of the jobs I have seen in plants, that walk around yelling and screaming the rules…
As I have observed “safety men” yelling at a hard working grown man, that it is a safety rule when on a ladder to always have one hand on the ladder, and at the same time yelling at the same person that he is not allowed to hold a grinder with one hand (grinders are to be held with 2 hands at all times) while the other hand is holding the ladder. ”
The same safety man yelling at another hard working grown man
“Everyone on this job wears a white hard hat, and you have on a brown hard hat, How am I supposed to find you when I need you?’
Sounds kind of STUPID doesn’t it? And so do YOU.
great job to the first on scene ensureing all was out of the vehicle an to deadly jobs from what i see its called scene size up im sure with all your experence you know how imporant that is ,small children have acctually been found under car seats and i am sure personal safty was on the mind of every one there
I am so glad everyone made it out of the burning van. It sure seems like there is always gonna be one person out there bashing our great firefighters. They are true heros. It’s a shame.
Wow! With as many accidents that have been happeing on Hwy 97 lately—Maybe the speed it too high. Maybe the Sheriff and Highway Patrol could make up some of the budget short falls for the county and state if they patrol it and catch the speeders. This is the most dangerous strip of road in the Panhandle.
“Deadly Jobs” is a dingleberry!!!, yes we know who you are…….and your still a dingleberry!!! HA HA!!!!
I think I saw someone with a marshmellow on a stick
LOL
Oh..and I absolutely ( without a doubt ) got mine.
If you want to take the idiotic( silly) stance that Personal protective gear ( boots coat helmet) will not help keep someone safe ( not dying ) than go ahead. That was my whole ( entire) point. Sorry that some people up here dont understand words that are not even considered ( thought as ) ninth grade vocabulary ( speech).
To Deadly Jobs with your experience LOL and attitude I hope you never work on anyone in my family I would rather have A real hero (bystander) work on me. It sounds like to me you missed yours and you angry about it get some counseling. Your using all those professional terms like your trying to sound important. If you really had 30yrs you would be wasting your time talking down to someone else. Get you nose out of the book on the real scene your human.
To all those that helped to day You did a great job!!!! Thank you William we all really appreciate you and YOUR FAST response. As first responders, medical, fire, and emergency were glad to have you on the north end!
Whatever
To Deadly Jobs if you was not there you don’t need to commenting on what others where doing. Because you don’t no what was going on are if someone was pin between the backseat in the floor. The firefighter and officer where doing what they need to do to put out the fire.
Thanks for the compliment, but, I dont consider myself a hero for doing my job. But again thanks. As for the semi accident, for those of us that do the job, it is considered a totally different animal and is not treated in the same fashion as a run of the mill fender bender which is what this was. Tractor trailers, whether loaded or empty are always suspect for haz-mat and or otherwise flamable materials. We carry DOT guides to deal with the myriad of chemicals that traverse the roads today. While I appreciate your attempt to find a mode of transpotation that blew up to discredit my statement, you might as well have cited an airplane crash which would have been equally no where fitting of an example. So please cite a car accident in which the automobile blew up without external forces at work. Thanks
Deadly jobs
HELLO, “Driver Dies In Big Rig Crash, Explosion On I-65″ May 12.
Anyone who risks their life to save another,
I CALL THEM HEROS.
PERIOD.
Mary…William is definately “on the job”. Frankly, I dont know how he jumps all these calls but somehow he does. If there is an internet news award out there we should all put him in for it. On a side note, all william needs is an AED and a pumper and he would beat most paid guys response times, a one man FD so to speak. Keep up the good work .
Once again William is on the spot! Maybe if more people are aware of the danger on Hwy. 97, we will see more patrol cars, more cars going the speed limit, and having to see less on this site about things that should never have happened in the first place William, you cannot know how important this site is! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! You don’t really need to sleep, do you?
It is a good thing William has so many people to toot his horn.
the heck with the article its all about the pictures…
William,fantastic job reporting by the way, but I will have to disagree. First, by the looks of the photos, if anyone were “trapped” inside they could have been seen. A quick shout to the people in the ditch, “Hey.. anybody left inside the car” would also have yielded results. Once the vacancy of the car was established, a more prudent use of time and manpower would have been to move the injured to a safer triage location in case the vehical “blew up” and I might add that after 30 tears of going to car accidents I have yet to see one “blow up” Now , the point that I was trying to make is that a dead rescuer is no good to anyone. Your personal safety at an incident comes first. It sounds awful but the point is that the fireman or the deputy didnt cause the accident ,why should they die or be hurt trying to mitigate it?
William – GREAT JOB and GREAT REPORTING!!!
Keep up the good work. The people of North Escambia are very lucky to have you and this website!
My prayers are with those in the vehicle…
“Deadly jobs — I’ll jump in on this one. I’m not an expert by any means. But…the fireman and sheriff’s deputy were the first on the scene. They jumped in with fire extinguishers as the Chevy started burning, I’m sure it was because at the time of the photo it was believed based upon radio traffic/911 call that someone was trapped in the vehicle that was starting to burn. If these two had not jumped in there and someone had been trapped, they would have burned to death.
Additionally, the injured and arriving rescuers were a very short distance from the vehicle. An explosion could have been fatal.
I checked the photo times…it was 3.5 minutes from the fireman with extinguisher photo to the time the first fire truck pulled up. Add a little extra time for the fireman to pull the hose, etc, it would have been nearly 4 minutes before the first fire hose was putting water on the fire.
I see them as heroes.
William
Admin
Advice for the guy in the photo gallery. A totaled out vehicle is not worth risking your lungs and/or life. Next time take the time to put on the bunker gear and SCBA that us taxpayers supply you with. You’ll thank me in later years when you dont have to retire on the heart and lung bill.
Wow, I hope the driver and passengers are okay… because that vehicle is to’ up…
Great pictures, William. Not only are you on the ball with fast, accurate stories… you are a very good photographer as well!
Thanks, NE….
I hope the people who were in the car are OK. have names been released yet?