A Gloster volunteer firefighter injured when the fire truck overturned Sunday while responding to an emergency call is recovering, according to his family.
James "Yogi" McCurley, 47, was paralyzed from the waist down following the accident, which happen as the truck was negotiating a turn on Kahnville Road.
His spine was bruised and six vertebrae damaged, said Frank McCurley, Yogi's brother.
Surgical procedures conducted Monday to replace the vertebrae by bone graft and a metal plate appear to have restored some of his movements, Frank said.
"He has got some feeling back in his legs," Frank said.
Yogi was being moved to a rehabilitation facility Friday, Frank said. He has been at the University Medical Center since the accident.
Frank said the doctors have not given any indication how long the rehabilitation may take, or how successful it may be.
Gloster Ward Five Alderman Elliot Davis, 51, was killed in the same accident after being partially ejected from the fire truck he was driving. Both men were volunteers with the Gloster Volunteer Fire Department and were responding to an emergency call at the time of the accident.
According to Rod Crawford, public relations officer with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Davis lost control of the truck on a curve approximately seven miles southeast of Gloster at 3:19 p.m. Sunday.
Davis, an alderman of Gloster for 11 years, was pronounced dead at the scene.
McCurley, a passenger in the truck, was first transferred to Field Memorial Hospital in Centreville then later to UMC.
