Pickup goes out-of-control on Perkins Street, missing three people at picnic shelter
BEATRICE -- Beatrice Police and fire officials were sent to the scene of a bizarre accident just south of the downtown area. It happened when a roofing company pickup turning from South Fifth to travel east on Perkins went out of control. The truck ended up colliding with a picnic shelter at Gage County Foundation Park, narrowly missing three people sitting there. Police Sergeant Wes Henning says the accident involved a total of four vehicles.
"There was a black pickup that was parked in the parking lot. We have a picnic shelter over here at the trail park. We had a red pickup parked in the driveway here, that was hit. A white flatbed is the one that appears to have lost control...and then there's another vehicle inside the garage at the business here, that was also struck."
Police theorize the driver of the out-of-control pickup may have suffered a medical problem. One person was being treated at the scene in an ambulance and was transported for medical treatment. Their condition was not immediately known.
The roofing company truck, after jumping the curb and hitting the parked pickup, drove up onto the grass of the trailhead park, shearing off a support post near three people.
"We had some folks that were having a picnic in the shelter....and it just missed them."
The white pickup continued across the grass to the north, crossing Perkins Street before colliding with two vehicles parked at a tire business. Initially, there was a report of a fire starting but may have been smoke from spinning tires on the truck that went out of control. No one was injured at the tire business located on the northwest corner of 6th and Perkins.
Traffic on South 6th, or U.S. Highway 77, was able to move around the scene on the northbound lane. The accident was two blocks south of the Beatrice Fire and Rescue headquarters. Also responding to the scene was a Beatrice electric department crew and the city’s Community Development officer, from building inspection.
