A pregnant Muncie woman was flown by helicopter to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis from the scene of a car accident Sunday night.
Her car was heading west on Main Street when it went off the road for unknown reasons and hit a tree head on, Sgt. Brad Arey of Muncie Traffic Control said. The accident occurred around 6 p.m. at the corner of Main and Hackley streets and involved a blue car with Michigan plates.
Arey said the car was driven by a unknown 20-year-old female from Muncie who was at least six months pregnant. A two-year-old boy was also in a car seat in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Arey said the relationship between the driver and the child was unknown.
"We had to get the infant and the female driver out of the vehicle," Arey said. "The impact crushed the doors in so we couldn't open the doors."
He said the boy was taken to Ball Memorial Hospital for leg injuries, but the condition of the driver and fetus was unknown.
The helicopter landing was organized by Sgt. Joseph Turner. He said it took between seven and 10 minutes to organize the landing in the Village Pantry parking lot, and it worked perfectly.
"We had two landing zones real close," Turner said. "We felt like the closer we could get it and get them in the air the better."
Muncie resident Tiffany Johnson lives across the street from the scene of the accident and came out when she heard the car hit the tree.
"The gentleman from across the street, and I unstrapped the boy from the car seat," Johnson said. "There were fumes coming from the engine of the car. I don't know if it was still running, but there was still a smell coming from it."
Muncie resident Evelyn Henry also lives across the street and was home when the accident occurred. She identified the man who helped pull the child out of the car as Willie Murphy, but she could not identify a second man who assisted Murphy.
"We were sitting here in my living room, and we heard this bang and ran out there and saw this baby's hand hanging out of the window and heard it crying," Henry said. "I said, 'Please pull this baby out of the car.'"
Henry said the tree is still standing but had most of the bark knocked off.
"You would never think you would walk out your front door and see something like that," Henry said. "I can't go to sleep; I keep hearing that baby crying."
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