By John Howell

Marty Sharp of Batesville had the equivalent of a front row seat during a spectacular accident on Highway 6 that ended a law enforcement pursuit of a Quitman County driver on August 14.

If fact, he was the front row.

Sharp had transported a friend to the Shell Gas Garden around 7:45 p.m. when a Jeep Cherokee traveling fast struck a second vehicle.

“When it hit, it threw her Jeep around backwards,” Sharp said.

Somehow the Jeep’s momentum continued as it then traveled backward, veered almost 90 degrees — heading directly towards where Sharp sat parked between two rows of gas pumps in his Chrysler 300 Hemi, awaiting his friend who had run out of gas and who was paying for the fuel she had pumped into a gasoline container.

Sharp said that he instinctively threw his car into reverse, but it was too late. The Jeep struck the front of his car, totaling his Chrysler, he said.

No one was killed in the automobile accident, said Panola coroner Gracie Grant-Gulledge.

Batesville Deputy Police Chief Don Province said that Josie L. Sanders of Marks, 52, was eastbound on Highway 6 fleeing a state trooper when she drove through Batesville at high speeds. City officers had been alerted and were scrambling to stop cross traffic. Another officer was trying to set out road spikes in her vehicle’s path, Province said.

“Before any of that could happen, they were here,” he said.

Robert Ware of Walls Road, Batesville, was the occupant of the first vehicle that the Jeep struck. He was transported from the scene by Air Evac.

Sanders was transported from the wreck by Med-Stat ambulance.

Province said that he had no information about charges filed. A blood test was administered to Sanders, but results were not yet available, he said.

An MHP official has said he will make additional information available today.

Sharp remains philosophical about his loss. The force of the Jeep’s impact had been sufficient, Sharp said, that when a wrecker pulled it away from his car, the front cap of his vehicle remained attached to the Jeep. Had his car not been parked there, the Jeep would likely have crashed into the convenience store.