Callie Cole, 16, of Enterprise Road, was in critical condition Friday morning at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where she was airlifted to after her 2008 Chevrolet Malibu collided with some heavy equipment on the side of the highway around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said.
      Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop M Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Rusty Boyd said Cole was southbound and ran off the right side off the roadway, overcorrected and lost control. He said the driver's side of her vehicle struck a piece of equipment that was parked for the night.
      It was the effort of some firefighters that was able to free her from the vehicle when the Brookhaven Fire Department's Jaws of Life malfunctioned.
      "What happened is that we had cut the back door latch and (the Jaws operator) thought he had cut it all the way in two and the machine died," said Ruth Volunteer Firefighter Randy Boyd.
      Boyd and three Brookhaven firefighters who had responded with the Jaws of Life were able to get the door open far enough to get Cole out of the vehicle and into the ambulance. She was transported to King's Daughters Medical Center, and airlifted to UMC from there.
      "It was just the way it was cramped right there was the main reason we could do it, it was bent right there at the front of the door," Boyd said about being able to free the driver.
      But there were other good Samaritans on scene as well, Ruth VFD Chief Teresa Lawrence said. An area resident also brought his personal equipment out to put the car in a position where the rescue could take place.
      "The driver's side of the door was up against the machinery and they couldn't get to her," she said. "So a man got a tractor with the hay frocks, and pushed the car away from the machinery so they could get to her."
      Boyd said he and the BFD firefighters were just doing their job.
      "We had that adrenaline going and we all just got a hold of it and pushed it, and it rolled right back," he said.
      Brookhaven Fire Chief Tony Weeks said the Jaws of Life will be sent for repair, and that they're tested every morning and cranked up just fine on Thursday morning. They had malfunctioned previously, but Weeks said repairs had been made since then.
      The Jaws of Life in question, which run out of Station Two, are a secondhand set given to the city by Heuck's Retreat Volunteer Fire Department when a set owned by the city went down.
      There is another set of Jaws that are functional at Station Three, and Weeks said Station Three will respond to all the Jaws calls in the county until the other set is repaired.