CAR SENDS PEOPLE FLYING; ONE PEDESTRIAN IS HOSPITALIZED AFTER ACCIDENT

Two men who narrowly escaped being struck by a vehicle as they left the Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau Tuesday afternoon say someone was watching out for them.

A third man in the party, Jeffrey Slinkard, 27, of 2842 Whitener, was struck. He was listed in stable condition Tuesday night at St. Francis Medical Center.

Three other people, including the driver of the vehicle that struck Slinkard, were also injured.

The accident occurred at 12:35 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of South Silver Springs and Bloomfield roads.

Cape Girardeau police said Mozelle D. Jarvis, 81, of 18 Green Meadows in Sikeston was southbound on Silver Springs Road when her vehicle clipped a northbound truck driven by Robert C. Mouser, 69, of Oran Route 1 at the intersection.

Jarvis' vehicle traveled down the embankment, hit a large rock in a landscaped area in front of the counseling center, hit Slinkard, who was walking out of the building, and then hit the building itself.

Jarvis, Mouser and Velta M. Mouser of the same address in Oran were all treated and released at St. Francis.

Slinkard and Tom Martin of Beussink, Hey, Martin and Roe PC, a Cape Girardeau accounting firm, were at the counseling center for an audit.

Slinkard, Martin and John Hudak, the director of the counseling center, were leaving the building when the accident occurred.

"We're just very grateful that nothing more serious happened," said Hudak. "We were just very lucky."

Martin and Hudak both managed to jump out of the way of Jarvis' vehicle.

"I just happened to look up and I saw the car airborne coming off of Bloomfield," said Hudak. "The car just kept coming toward us," he said. "I moved off to the right. (Martin) moved off to the left. As I turned around, I saw (Slinkard) in the air."

Martin said he saw Slinkard hit the building after he was struck by the vehicle.

"He went up in the air and he hit his head on the eave overhang, and then he hit the building," Martin said.

Neither Martin nor Hudak was injured.

"I went the right way, I guess," Martin said. "It was pretty scary. I think we were kind of frozen in place. We didn't really realize the car was coming toward us."

Slinkard started his job with the accounting firm in January, Martin said.

Hudak called Slinkard "a very lucky young man."

Hudak said he had just left a meeting with the counseling center's medical staff before the accident, and the physicians and nurses were on the scene to help the injured before an ambulance and fire crews arrived.

"We were all just very lucky," Hudak said. "Somebody was looking out for us."