Cyril woman injured in Monday night wreck

CYRIL — A Monday night wreck south of Cyril sent a Caddo County woman to an Oklahoma City hospital in critical condition.

The accident also shut down traffic for more than five hours and knocked out power to homes in Cyril and Apache.

Mindy M. Cates, 42, of Cyril, was flown to OU Medical Center where she was admitted in critical condition with head, leg and internal trunk injuries, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Cates was driving a Kia Forte northbound on U.S. 277 at 7:38 p.m. when she went left of center for an unknown reason and collided head-on with a Peterbilt tractor trailer driven by Curtis L. Jackson around 1½-mile south of Cyril, Trooper Spencer Sperling reported. Cates, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was pinned inside her vehicle for about 25 minutes before Cyril firefighters freed her using the hydraulic rescue tool.

Jackson, 71, of Chickasha, was treated and released from Comanche County Memorial Hospital.

The wreck downed several power line, closing the roadway until shortly before 1 a.m. Residents in Cyril and Apache reported power outages through the evening.

Cates’ condition at the time of the wreck remains under investigation. Sperling cited her traveling left of center as the collision’s cause.