WALKER HURT IN FREAK ACCIDENT

A Cape Girardeau man walking along the 400 block of South Sprigg escaped serious injury Saturday morning when he was struck in the back by a loose boom from a logging truck. Injured in the freak accident was Roy Donaldson, 32, of 1018 Independence.

Officer Don Hellwege of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said Donaldson and his brother, Tommy Donaldson, 30, were walking south in the 400 block of South Sprigg at about 9:30 a.m.

The logging truck and trailer loaded with logs had just made a left turn off Morgan Oak and was traveling south on Sprigg to reach I-55. The logging truck is owned by the East Perry Lumber Co. of Frohna.

Hellwege said the clamp at the end of the hydraulic-operated boom apparently came loose from one of the logs as the truck was making a left turn, causing the boom to swing out to the right side of the truck while it was turning.

He said the loose boom struck several small wooden windmills and other lawn decorations setting on the sidewalk in front the Market Basket, at the corner of Morgan Oak and South Sprigg. It then tore down a state highway sign post about 20 feet down the street, before striking Donaldson as he was walking on the sidewalk in the middle of the block.

Hellwege said the driver of the truck, Ronald Stelling, 37, of Frohna, was apparently not aware the boom had struck Donaldson until he looked in his mirror and saw the boom swinging out along the side of the truck, and saw Donaldson on the sidewalk. The driver was not charged.

Tommy Donaldson told Hellwege he normally walks on the street side of the sidewalk. "Tommy said he had just switched positions with Roy, who was walking on the street side of the sidewalk, when the accident occurred," said Hellwege. "Tommy said he and Roy were walking side by side when he suddenly saw his brother go flying ahead of him. He's a very lucky young man. If the boom had struck him in the head, it could have killed him."

As a precaution, paramedics from the Cape Girardeau County ambulance service and the Cape Girardeau Fire Department carefully immobilized Donaldson on a spine board before transporting him by ambulance to a hospital. A spokesman said Donaldson was treated and released with only minor injuries.

The accident was first reported as a shooting, which prompted authorities to dispatch several police squad cars to the scene. Hellwege speculated the so-called gunshot was probably the sound of the boom striking the metal highway sign.