It took Nassau County Fire Rescue crews about an hour to extricate the driver of a log truck owned by RBJ Timber, Inc., of Callahan, top, after a westbound pickup truck crossed the median on A1A and a chain-reaction accident ensued. A log truck owned by Rampey Logging, Inc., of Lakeland, Ga., was the last involved in the wreck, unable to stop before striking a man standing on the road and hitting another truck. Photos courtesy of Deputy Chief Roger West/Nassau County Fire Rescue

A wreck on A1A involving two log trucks, two tractor-trailer trucks and a pickup truck left one person dead and four injured early Thursday morning.

The accident two miles west of I-95 at 2:30 a.m. closed the eastbound lanes of A1A for about four and a half hours.

“It looked like major carnage when we drove up,” said Nassau County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Roger West.

“It has been about nine years since I have been on (an accident) scene this bad.”

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, William Marty Simmons, 44, of Callahan was killed when a log truck struck him as he stood on the side of the road. Simmons apparently lost control of his 1993 GMC pickup truck while driving west on A1A, crossed the median into the eastbound lanes and overturned into the outside eastbound lane of A1A.

“According to a witness, (Simmons) was standing in the outside eastbound lane … he got out of his vehicle,” said highway patrol spokesperson Bill Leeper.

That’s when a chain-reaction crash involving four trucks occurred, ending with one hitting Simmons and another his pickup, which burst into flames.

“The other trucks came along and of course they all started stopping suddenly, it was sort of a pile-up,” Leeper said.

The first two trucks, a 1998 freightliner semi tractor-trailer driven by Joe Edward Sanders, 52, of Houston and a 2000 Volvo semi tractor-trailer driven by Tony Lee Rollins, 54, of Springfield, Ga., both slowed in the eastbound lanes as they came upon the Simmons rollover, according to police.

But then a 2007 freightliner log truck driven by James Glen Ritter, 40, of Hilliard struck the Volvo semi in the rear, then moved to the right and struck the pickup truck in the right side, “causing both vehicles to travel onto the south shoulder where (the pickup truck) was engulfed in flames,” Leeper said.

A fourth semi truck, a Kenworth log truck driven by Lewis Elvin Stalvey, 54, of Homerville, Ga., also traveling east, struck Simmons and the Volvo semi.

The Volvo semi was pushed into the rear of the Freightliner semi, causing the Freightliner semi to jackknife in the grass median.

Simmons died at the scene; the other four drivers were taken to Shands Jacksonville.

Leeper said Ritter, Stalvey and Rollins received minor injuries; Sanders was seriously injured in the wreck.

Nassau County Fire Chief Chuck Cooper said he believed the truck drivers’ injuries were not life threatening.

The log trucks, presumably headed to the paper mills on Amelia Island, were owned by Rampey Logging, Inc. of Lakeland, Ga., and RBJ Timber, Inc. of Callahan. The other two tractor-trailer trucks, carrying empty containers, were presumably headed to the mills to pick up cargo.

One of the eastbound lanes of traffic on A1A was reopened about 7 a.m.; both lanes were open by 10 a.m.

Leeper said whether the accident was drug- or alcohol-related is pending the outcome of toxicology tests.

Charges are pending the conclusion of the investigation.