For motorists heading home on the Greenville Bypass from work Thursday evening, detours were required following a three-vehicle collision which authorities said could have been worse.

Worse that is, for the victim pinned inside her automobile.

Callie Hickman, 71, of Greenville was trapped inside her red Chevy Lumina when passing firefighters and paramedics arrived to assist her.

According to police reports, preliminary investigation showed that Hickman’s vehicle was exiting the Gateway Plaza Shopping Center as a transfer truck-trailer combination owned by Wiley Sanders Trucking was traveling west on the Greenville Bypass.

The driver of the rig, attempting to avoid a collision with Hickman’s vehicle, locked its brakes and swerved, causing what is known as a &uot;jack-knife&uot;, which is when the tractor portion of the truck/trailer is turned back against its own trailer. The truck driver was not injured.

Officers also reported that as the truck impacted with Hickman’s Lumina, another vehicle, traveling east on the bypass collided with the right-front side of the truck.

The operator of the third vehicle, a white Buick LeSabre, was uninjured, and her vehicle received only light damage to the left front quarter panel.

Once removed from the vehicle, Hickman was transported by stretcher in an ambulance to L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital, where she was examined for a chief complaint of pain to her left shoulder and side, and later was admitted for treatment.