AVOCA — It was drizzling rain but bystanders who stopped to help until paramedics and emergency medical technicians arrived didn’t seem fazed by it at the scene of a two-vehicle accident of U.S. Highway 62 at the traffic light by the Avoca One-Stop Tuesday, May 25.

The front end of a black Jeep Wrangler was mangled. The driver’s door of a purple Chrysler Sebring was crushed into the car.

A Rogers woman was killed and three people were injured. Sue Ellen Wood, 59, of Rogers, was pronounced dead at Northwest Medical Center.

The wreck stalled traffic on thebusy highway.

Karl Schmidt, a former Pea Ridge police officer and current part-time police officer for Little Flock, said he was only one of several persons who stopped to help. Schmidt said he arrived on the scene right after the collision and held a towel to the head of the driver of the Jeep to stop the bleeding and talked to the young man to help keep him calm.

Nicholas Edmisten, 20, of Gentry, was a passenger in the Sebring driven by Wood. He said he had been involved in a bad wreck before and had recently served in the military in Iraq. Wet and shaking, he sat in the back of a firefighter’svehicle until the ambulance arrived.

Chandler Cracraft, 20, a University of Arkansas student, was the driver of the 1992 Jeep Wrangler.

Sarah Beth Champagne, 19, of Fayetteville, was a passenger in the Jeep. She and Cracraft were treated and then released at Mercy Medical Center, Rogers.

The accident was investigated by the Arkansas State Police. Personnel from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, VAS Ambulance Service Corporation, Rogers Fire Department, Northeast Benton County Volunteer Fire Department and Avoca Fire Department assisted at the scene.

News, Pages 1 on 06/02/2010