Photo courtesy of Randolph County Sheriff’s Office Emergency crews responded to a one-vehicle accident on the Beverly Five-lane early Tuesday morning. The driver of the vehicle was suspected of having a medical emergency before crossing both lanes of traffic and striking a guardrail. The vehicle also went down an embankment and hit several trees. The driver was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.

ELKINS — One person was transported by helicopter to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown after a single-vehicle accident on the Beverly Five-lane across from the United Parcel Service center Tuesday morning.

At approximately 5:42 a.m., deputies with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the accident after a citizen alerted 911 about witnessing a vehicle cross both lanes of traffic and go over an embankment, officials said. 

Sgt. Brice Cogar and Deputy Zack Pingley of the RCSO were first on scene and observed that a car had struck the guardrail, and the passenger side wheel and tire were separated from the vehicle, police said.

Because the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed, it was able to continue beyond the guardrail before going over an embankment and striking several trees, despite it only having three wheels, according to officials.

Pingley found the driver of the car unresponsive with a faint radial pulse, according to an RCSO press release. The Randolph County Emergency Squad arrived on scene and was unable to find a pulse on the driver. Life-saving measures were then administered on the driver and he was “brought back to life,” the release states.

“I’m glad that Deputy Pingley was close by when the accident occurred,” Randolph County Sheriff Rob Elbon told The Inter-Mountain Wednesday. “He was the first one there and did as many life-saving measures as he could until somebody got there to help him.

“You never know what the deal is in those kinds of accidents. You don’t know if they are hurt from the car wreck, or because of a medical emergency.” 

The driver, who was immediately flown to Morgantown, is suspected to have had a medical emergency while driving, police said. The name of the driver was not released by press time.