Grandin fire chief walks away from head-on accident with logging truck

GRANDIN, Mo. -- Authorities immediately assumed the worst when they received a call Tuesday that a pickup truck had been involved in a head-on accident with a fully loaded logging truck. Both a Ripley County ambulance and Air Evac were quickly dispatched.

What they didn't know was that Grandin fire chief David Townsend had walked away from the accident that totaled his Dodge Ram.

The 42-year-old Grandin resident received a report at about noon Election Day that there was a fire on Spencer's Mountain. Townsend responded and was on Curved Hill, off County Road K5 in the northeast corner of Ripley County, when he saw the logging truck.

Townsend said he stopped and pulled off the road as far as he could.

"I was going up the hill and the truck was going down the hill. He couldn't slow down," Townsend said.

The logging truck drove up on Townsend's pickup.

Townsend was able to get out of the vehicle without any help. He didn't have any broken bones, only a deep gash on his knee and a smaller cut on his head, he said.

Ripley County ambulance personnel arrived and, after assessing the situation, called to say Air Evac wasn't needed, according to officials.

Townsend was taken by ambulance to Ripley County Memorial Hospital. After about two hours, he was sent home with 60 stitches for the cut on his leg and five stitches for the cut on his head.