WILKINSON — A teenager climbed from the wreckage of his friend’s flipped car to tell a neighbor to call 911 after a crash Tuesday evening that sent three Knightstown teens to the hospital, police said.
The crash happened just before 7 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of county roads 900E and 700N near Wilkinson.
Two helicopters were called to airlift the 17-year-old driver and his 19-year-old brother to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis; both were seriously injured in the accident, police said. A third teen was taken to Hancock Regional Hospital with minor injuries to his lower body, police said.
Police said they believe driver Daniel Rayburn, 17, was speeding while headed eastbound on County Road 700N. They said he likely lost control of his car as he was traveling through the intersection with County Road 900E, where there is a slight dip in the roadway, officers said.
Investigators have not determined how fast the young driver was going at the time of the accident; the speed limit in the area is 50 miles per hour.
The car careened off the north side of the roadway, hit a tree and then a concrete fence post, police said.
The car flipped several times and came to rest upside down on the south side of the road, police said. Rayburn and his 19-year-old brother, Kyle, were pinned in the front seat, police said.
Isaac Roberts, 17, the backseat passenger, was able to climb from the car and make it to a nearby house for help, police said.
The homeowner called 911 to report the crash.
Firefighters cut Daniel and Kyle Rayburn from the car and called for helicopters to transport them to Indianapolis for further care. Both were unconscious at the scene.
Kyle Rayburn was airlifted from the scene of the crash and taken directly to St. Vincent, police said. He was still being treated there Wednesday in the hospital’s orthopedic unit, hospital officials confirmed.
Daniel Rayburn was rushed by ambulance to Hancock Regional Hospital, where paramedics put him on a second helicopter bound for St. Vincent, police said. He was being treated in the hospital’s trauma unit Wednesday, hospital officials confirmed.
Roberts was treated and released from Hancock Regional Hospital, officials said.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department’s crash team is still investigating the accident.