1 person released from hospital after I-10 crash

By Kate McCardell

Published: May 22, 2008

One of the victims of the fatal single-vehicle crash on Interstate 10 near Chattahoochee Wednesday has been released from hospital care.

The group of 20-somethings were apparently on a road-trip to Disney World, according to an employee of the MarketPlace Grill in Arkansas, where most of the group was employed.

Dorothy French, of Conway, Ark., was the only passenger wearing a seat belt during the accident that ejected six other passengers, according to Florida Highway Patrol. French has been released from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

Two occupants, Lucy S. Bolton and Ron Windole Elmore Jr., were dead on the scene.

Three others, Kali Sparks, John Tyler Bass and Sarah White, all from Conway, remain in “extremely critical” condition, according to FHP Lt. Kenneth Ellis.
Another passenger, Ashley Nicole Spencer of Conway, is in stable condition at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

The accident occurred at about 8 a.m. Wednesday between the Sneads and Chattahoochee exits on I-10.

Several law enforcement agencies and medical personnel were at the scene. Witnesses at the scene said the bodies of the two people who died in accident were still on the highway at 9:40 a.m.

The cause of the accident is unknown at this time, but Florida Highway Patrol officers at the scene said six of the seven people in the car were ejected.
The one person who was not ejected from the vehicle managed to crawl out, an FHP officer reported.

The incident began when the gray Nissan Pathfinder traveled off the roadway, according to highway patrol. The vehicle then began to overturn and six unrestrained passengers were ejected.

The five occupants who were not pronounced dead at the scene were air-lifted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, according to highway patrol.

For more than two hours after the single-vehicle crash at mile marker 162,about five miles of the interstate was closed, with traffic diverted onto County Road 286.

The Gadsden County Sheriff;s Department, Chattahoochee Fire Department and Florida Department of Transportation assisted Florida Highway Patrol at the scene.

— The Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Ark., contributed to this article.