Man has arm severed in collision
Published 9:30 am Tuesday, March 31, 2015
A Warren County man was in critical condition at University of Mississippi Medical Center Tuesday after losing his left arm and hand when his pickup and a trailer carrying a disc farm implement being pulled by another truck collided on Fisher Ferry Road on Monday south of Amanda Drive.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said Harvey Lee Funches, 45, whose address was given as Funches Road, was flown to University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson by Air Call. The other driver was not injured.
The accident occurred about 1:45 p.m. Funches was northbound on Fisher Ferry when his truck and the trailer, which was being pulled by a southbound pickup driven by Chase Noland, 30, of Tallulah, collided and one of the blades severed his arm at the shoulder and then severed his hand from the arm.
“He sideswiped the trailer, but did not hit the truck,” Pace said, adding the accident heavily damaged Funches’ truck, peeling off the top of the door.
Funches, Pace said, continued driving about 1/2-mile before pulling into the parking lot of a church near the intersection of Fisher Ferry and Grange Hall Road.
He said emergency responders from the Fisher Ferry Volunteer Fire Department assisted by sheriff’s deputies administered first aid to Funches until a Vicksburg ambulance arrived and took him to the Vicksburg Municipal Airport on U.S. 61 South, where he was transferred to the helicopter. His hand and arm were recovered at the scene of the accident and given medics in the helicopter, who packed them in ice and took them to the hospital with Funches.
“He was conscious and talking to us during the entire ordeal,” the sheriff said. “He kept talking to us while he was in his truck and on the way to the helicopter.
Pace said the accident remains under investigation, adding sheriff’s deputy Brandon Jones and investigator Stacy Rollinson are working on the case. Rollinson, he said, is one of two accident reconstructionists for the department.