Local

Pickup truck smashes into Tulsa motel at high speed

A pickup truck westbound on Interstate 44 near Garnett flew off the highway, hit a curb, went airborn, struck another vehicle, then smashed into the front of a motel.

It happened about 9:00 a.m. near the I-44 junction with S. Garnett Ave.

It took firefighters about 45 minutes to extricate the driver of the pickup, but they told KRMG at the scene EMSA transported him in stable condition.

Both rooms badly damaged by the crash were occupied, but the guests escaped without a scratch.

One of them, Phil Mirren of Missouri, told KRMG he awoke to find one of the brick columns from outside the motel had smashed through the wall and into his room.

"I was still in bed, and all of a sudden the pillar came through the wall and just landed right next to my bed, threw one of the bricks on the bed."

KRMG also spoke with Luis Beltran, a contractor working on the motel with his nephew Antonio.

The men said they when the wreck happened, they were on the other side of the building but ran to try and help.

"We were kind of scared because there was steam coming out of the motor, and we thought it might (catch) fire or something," he said.

But the driver didn't lose consciousness, and was talking to the employees and later firefighters as they worked to get him out of the mangled wreck.

The motel suffered serious structural damage, losing two pillars that supported the second-story landing.

The wall also had extreme damage, and several windows were shattered.

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