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Father asking for help locating vehicle involved in Jack County wreck

Tue, 01/21/2020 - 11:39 am

Kevin Summerlin is asking for help locating a third vehicle involved in a wreck which left his son John Paul “Jacob” Summerlin with serious injuries and Omar Frank Pittman dead on Dec. 2.

According to a Texas Department of Public Safety press release, Pittman, 70 of Atoka, Okla., was driving a 2003 Toyota passenger car East on U.S. 380 approximately 12 miles East of Jacksboro when he attempted to pass a vehicle on a hill in a no passing zone and had a head-on collision with a 2008 Ford passenger car driven by Jacob Summerlin, 20 of Ponder.

“The vehicle Jacob was driving spun and rolled one and a half times and ended up upside down in the westbound ditch. The other vehicle spun and rolled, also into the westbound ditch,” Kevin Summerlin wrote in an email . “According to the investing trooper, they are certain that there was a third vehicle involved. The vehicle that struck Jacob had significant damage to its rear, that could not be explained by the head on accident or the surrounding environment. You can also tell from the scene that the vehicle made and abrupt turn towards the westbound ditch after the collision. It is unclear what, if any involvement the third vehicle may have had in the actual head on collision.”

He added and DPS confirmed law enforcement pulled security camera footage from nearby businesses and homes in hopes of spotting the semi which left the scene, but were unsuccessful.

According to the DPS press release, Jack County Justice of the Peace pronounced Pittman dead on the scene. Summerlin said Jacob had a compound fracture in his right leg, along with multiple fractures in his leg, knee, ankle and foot, fractures in his left hip, knee, ankle and foot, a lacerated spleen and a partially collapsed lung. Summerlin added his son underwent emergency surgery at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth where he spent the next week.

Anyone with more information on the wreck can contact the  Wichita Falls Highway Patrol Office at 940-851-5500.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 22, edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.