A late-afternoon wreck on U.S. 271 a few miles south of Gilmer Tuesday sent two children who were in a minivan and the driver of an 18-wheeler to the hospital.

Four other people in the van, including two other children, sustained minor injuries.

Identities had not been released by press deadline for this issue, with the DPS office closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The accident occurred about 3:15 p.m. about four miles south of Gilmer and just north of Dave’s Stereo, when the 18-wheeler rear-ended the Dodge minivan, containing a woman and four children. Both vehicles were northbound on U.S. 271.

The van came to rest at the bottom of an embankment on the east (right) side of the highway.

The driver of the 18-wheeler was pinned in the cab of his tractor rig for nearly two hours, before rescuers using the Jaws of Life could extricate him. His legs were trapped beneath the truck’s dashboard.

Both vehicles were totalled.

The truck driver was freed about 4:58 p.m. Tuesday, and was taken by air ambulance to East Texas Medical Center-Tyler.

The tractor-trailer rig traveled a few hundred yards north beyond the impact site, before going off the right side of the highway and smashing through a chain link fence, taking out a power pole in the process.

Electricity and telephone service were knocked out in the area. Upshur Rural Electric crews had the power back on in about an hour.

Agencies involved included the Department of Public Safety, which had four troopers on the scene, the Gilmer Fire Department (Gilmer Fire Chief Mike Melton drove upon the wreck just after it had happened), the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office with deputies who helped direct traffic, and ETMC EMS, which sent two ambulances. A Camp County EMS ambulance came to the site, but left soon afterward.

An East Mountain police vehicle was also present.

The overturned 18-wheeler extending into the northbound lane, blocking traffic for several hours.

Residents nearby the scene and others helped remove the couple and the four small children who were in the van, and tried to comfort the family.

The woman’s chin was bleeding, and two children were taken by ambulance to Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview.

There was an unconfirmed report that a one-month-old girl was taken to a Shreveport hospital and put in ICU, suffering from seizures.

Chief Melton said that, initially, the truck driver told rescuers that he didn’t want to go to the hospital.