VIOLENT IMPACT: Accident triggered when driver apparently falls asleep

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

LifeForce crews scurry toward awaiting ambulances to aid victims following a head-on crash on Highway 56 North Wednesday afternoon. Five people were injured when a driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel. (Duane Sherrill photo)

Five people were injured Wednesday in a head-on crash on Highway 56 North after a driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel.

According to Highway Patrolman Mike Tanner, the accident occurred at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday on Highway 56 North near Dibrell when Charlie R. Jones, 35, apparently fell asleep at the wheel as he was returning home from work.

Jones’ Oldsmobile, which was southbound on Highway 56 heading toward McMinnville, crossed the center line and entered the path of the northbound Chrysler New Yorker driven by Robert Flores, 38.

The head-on impact flipped Jones’ vehicle onto its top. Flores’ wife, Kathy Flores, 27, was trapped in the wreckage of their car and had to be extricated using the Jaws of Life. Her children, Miranda Ralph, 10, and Micara Ralph, 11, who were seated in the back seat of the car, were also injured.

Mrs. Flores and Miranda Ralph were airlifted from the scene by LifeForce helicopter which made its landing in a nearby driveway. The remaining three victims were taken to River Park Hospital by the Warren County Emergency Ambulance Service.

The accident took place at almost the identical spot of a head-on collision March 23. That crash resulted in the death of two women. The straight stretch of highway where the two accidents occurred seems an improbable spot for head-on collisions.