Area man injured in car crash

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS December 19, 2008 09:57 am

— LOCUST GROVE – A Catoosa man was admitted to a Tulsa hospital in good condition Thursday after running off a Mayes County road and hitting a tree.
Thomas Wilbanks, 35, suffered head, trunk internal and arm injuries. He was driving a 1988 Chevrolet pickup east on a county road when the vehicle went left of the center line and veered off the road to the left. The truck went 108 feet in a ditch before hitting the tree head-on.
Wilbanks was extricated out of the driver’s side door with the Jaws of Life by Locust Grove firefighters and taken to St. John’s Hospital by MESTA ambulance after the 9:28 a.m. crash.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol reports state Wilbanks was wearing a seat belt. Reports state the truck’s passenger door was operational, but ambulance crews requested Wilbanks be removed out the driver’s door that was stuck.