Amanda Corbin/Poteau Daily News
After a year marred by tragedy, 2016 brought more woe Sunday when a wreck badly injured popular local teacher Rebekah Askew and her family.
They had been enjoying a beautiful afternoon at Heavener Runestone Park in far eastern Oklahoma when a horrific crash overturned their SUV completely and then hurled it over a stone wall.
After firefighters freed Askew and her daughter with the Jaws of Life, three air ambulances took both of them and her son to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.
Her husband, Claremore Fire Marshall Jason Crandall, was taken by ground ambulance to a hospital in nearby Ft. Smith, Ark., Heavener police said.
He was released after treatment there and reunited with his family, who were reported responding well to treatment at St. Francis.
See more details in this week’s Leader, on sale now.