Trucks carrying Miller Country Rural Volunteer Fire Department’s auto extrication equipment failed to respond to a Friday morning wreck that trapped a woman in her car for more than 30 minutes.

Lt. Brady Gore of the Arkansas State Police said that Maglay Sardon, 67, of Dallas was driving a 1996 Honda van west on U.S. Highway 82 just west of Garland City, Ark., when the vehicle crossed the center line and struck the rear tires of an oncoming tractor-trailer.

Sardon was pronounced dead at the scene after being extricated from the van by members of the Stamps Volunteer Fire Department. The accident occurred at about 6:20 a.m., and the Miller County Sheriff’s Office dispatched the Miller County Rural six minutes later, according to county dispatch records.

Nancy Anderson, a medical first responder with Miller County Rural VFD’s Satellite station, was en route to the station three minutes later with husband Lance Anderson and arrived on the scene at 6:45 a.m.

Satellite was the nearest county station to the accident.

When she realized that Sardon was trapped and that Miller County VFD’s main rescue truck, which carries auto extrication equipment, would not respond, she requested help from Lafayette County.

She said Miller County’s rescue truck would have arrived when she did. It took another 13 minutes for the Stamps VFD to arrive.

Miller County VFD’s Mandeville station reportedly checked en route with rescue equipment but was told to stand down because Stamps could reach the accident sooner.

Sardon was still alive as her husband, who had been following his wife in another vehicle, and her three passengers waited for her to be removed from the vehicle, Anderson said.

“It was pretty bad,” she said. “All we could do was stand there.”

The three other passengers were taken to CHRISTUS St. Michael Health Center in Texarkana. As of Friday afternoon, 20-yearold Ligna Sardon of Dallas was in stable condition, and Rebecca Zelada, 3, of Dallas and Juana Hernandez, 44, of El Dorado, Ark., had been discharged.

Lee Davis, 42, driver of the truck, was uninjured. He is from Texarkana, Texas. 

Read more of this story at WriteForArkansas.org.

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