Register Star reporter plays role in rescue
Published: May 25, 2007
Register Star sports reporter Jay Taft was on his way to the girls state track meet Friday morning on eastbound Illinois 16 when he saw a medium-sized SUV pull onto the highway in front of a pickup truck about 50 yards ahead.
Taft described the resulting crash as “an explosion.” He pulled off the road and went to assist the victims of the accident, two high school senior girls in the SUV.
“The driver was unconscious. The impact was on her door and it slid her over toward the center of the car,” Taft said. “I felt for a pulse and climbed into the back seat of the car to keep her neck straight until help arrived.”
The passenger, Taft said, was conscious but a little disoriented and “freaked out” by seeing her friend unconscious right next to her.
The driver, Hannah H. Claeys of Charleston was airlifted to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana where she was in serious condition.
Her passenger, Nicole M. Dallas, also of Charleston, did not require hospitalization.
The girls, both soccer players at Charleston High School, were to have played against Champaign Centennial in a Class AA regional championship game Friday afternoon. The game was postponed.
John A. Winn of Westfield, driver of the pickup truck, was ticketed for driving an uninsured vehicle.
Neither he nor his passenger, Kyle A. White of Ashmore, required hospital treatment.
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