Okemah man involved in semi-truck accident resulting in one fatality in McIntosh County

By Joshua Allen
ONL Staff Reporter

Two semi-trucks collided this week in McIntosh County, resulting in the death of one man after being ejected from the vehicle. 

Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers were called to the scene just after noon Tuesday, February 26, near the intersection of Old Business U.S. 69 and County Road 1090, about a mile south of Checotah, where they found two Peterbilt trucks entangled in an accident. 

Heading up the investigation into the collision was Trooper Harold Collins, who reported the cause of the collision to be “failure to yield a stop sign.” 

According to Collins’ report, a 2014 semi-truck, driven by Jim Lee Reynolds, 53, of Sapulpa, was heading eastbound on CR 1090 when he failed to stop at the stop sign while turning to go north on Old Business U.S. 69. 

The failure to stop, the trooper’s report said, resulted in the collision with a second semi-truck, driven by Okemah’s James Mahan, 55, who was not injured. 

Mahan had a passenger in the truck, 30-year-old Cody James Mahan, of Schulter. He also sustained no injuries, the trooper noted. 

However, after being ejected from the truck “for approximately 25 feet,” Reynolds was pronounced deceased at the scene by Checotah EMS, as a result of “injuries sustained from the accident,” Collins reported. 

The trooper noted the weather to be cloudy and the roadway to be dry at the time of the accident, reporting seatbelts to be equipped and in use by those in the truck that was hit. The status of seatbelt use in Reynolds’ truck was listed “unknown.” 

Collins, a trooper with the McIntosh County Detachment of Troop C, was assisted in the investigation by Troopers Russell Knoke, Scott Lee, Justin Williams, Christopher Reeves and Darrick Eades, Checotah EMS, Garrett Funeral Home and the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office.  

“This report is based on the trooper’s investigation of this collision,” the report standardly states at its conclusion. “It may contain the opinion of the trooper.”