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    • Car rear-ends semi
    • Posted Aug. 28, 2012 midnight
    • Raul Avila, 31 of Garden City, escaped injury after the 1998 Plymouth Breeze he was driving rear-ended a semi truck and trailer waiting to turn off U.S. 54 onto K-64 highway about a mile east of Pratt. Dean Winter, 44 of Stafford, was driving the 2005 Kenworth for Concrete Enterprises. He had stopped to let traffic clear before turning off U.S. 54. The force of the impact caused severe damage to the front end of the Plymouth. Several tools and a tool box were in the back seat of the car. The tools went flying into the front seat including a floor jack that impaled itself in the front windshield just a couple of feet from Avila who was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. The air bags deployed and Avila was not injured. The collision broke the support system for the rear wheel assembly on the semi trailer. The damage was temporarily repaired on site and driven away for repairs. The car was removed with a rollback. The accident was Aug. 21 and it backed up traffic for miles in both directions during the hour it took to work and clear the accident.