Report from Freestone County Sheriff Jeremy Shipley:
At 2:00 a.m. [Saturday] morning, a vehicle going at unknown high rate of speed, blew past our FCSO Deputies on Commerce near Fair Park, heading west into town. As the vehicle entered downtown and approached the red light at Commerce and Mount, another vehicle was stopped at the red light in the left lane, and the speeding vehicle ran off the road, jumping the curb in front of the courthouse and took out a corner light pole. The vehicle continued straight and jumped another curb in front of Heritage Title where it went through the sidewalk railing, airborne, and through the building, where it came to rest. There was a fire from the wreck inside the building in the front of the vehicle and the Deputies used their fire extinguishers to start fighting the fire and were able to remove the female passenger from the vehicle through the passenger window to safety.
Firefighters arrived on scene and were able to put out the rest of the fire and extricated the driver from the vehicle by cutting the roof off the car.
Both subjects, male driver and female passenger, were transported to hospitals by careflight due to injuries.
Both subjects were from the Lufkin area.
This accident investigation is being handled by DPS and is an on-going investigation at this time.
Prayers for those involved as we await to hear their condition.
Praise to our Deputies on quick work in doing what they could with their fire extinguishers against the fire and removing the female passenger from the vehicle to safety.
Great job as usual by our fire departments as they successfully put out the remaining fire and were able to safely remove the driver.
Please, DO NOT enter the area or the actual building itself. The damage sustained to the building has created a potentially dangerous hazard due to weakening parts of the structure. The area has been roped off with caution tape and barricades have been set up around that end of the building.
