Published Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Vehicle goes airborne Tuesday on Old Carrollton Road, hits tree

By JOHN A. WINTERS

john@newnan.com

A 22-year-old man was trapped for about an hour as rescue personnel worked to free him from underneath his vehicle after a Tuesday afternoon wreck in western Coweta.

Timothy Hansen was the sole occupant of the Ford Explorer Sport, which went airborne and struck a tree on Old Carrollton Road about 10 feet off the ground before landing on the driver’s side, according to Georgia State Patrol Trooper First Class James Womble of the Newnan post.

The driver was conscious and in stable condition when he was taken by air ambulance to an Atlanta area hospital.

Hansen was northbound on Old Carrollton Road around 4:30 p.m. when he passed a car on a turn. Just down from that, another car was pulling out of a driveway, the trooper said. Hansen jerked back to the right to avoid it, overcorrected and then again crossed the roadway before going into a ditch. That in turn sent his SUV airborne before it struck a tree and rolled over.

Coweta County Fire Department personnel spent about an hour trying to extricate the driver from the vehicle.

The accident occurred in front of the home of Old Carrollton Road resident Ken Rigsby, who said he thought he heard a huge thunderstorm at first. He said his wife started yelling at him that there was an accident outside.

“I didn’t have time to think, it just happened so fast,” said Rigsby, who got in his pickup truck and drove it up against the Explorer to keep it from rolling over more.

“I was just trying to keep it (the vehicle) off his head,” Rigsby said. His truck remained where it was until after Hansen was removed by rescue workers from the Explorer.