LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – It was around 3:45 Monday afternoon when Ruby Sweeney heard it.
"We heard the loud boom and a crash," Sweeney described.
Then she saw it. "I thought the guy was dead. I was just yelling, 'Help! Help! Get him out the car please before the car blows up,'" she told WHAS11.
Little did she know the driver behind the wheel of a mangled truck was an escaped Metro Corrections inmate - free for nearly 40 hours.
Police say Jeremy Hunt collided with two other vehicles at the intersection of Dixie Highway and Greenwood Road.
Hunt, along with two others, were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Sweeney still shaken by what she saw. "It was very traumatizing," she said.
The crash ended the search for Hunt and Justin Stumler, both recorded by Metro Corrections surveillance video.
They can be seen in their orange jumpsuits climbing out of two portable trash cans. Then they move down a stairwell, changing their clothes, then taking off.
Stumler was arrested Monday morning - police got a tip from the public. Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton calling their escape a breakdown in security.
"Part of that security protocol is obviously to check whatever's inside those trash cans before they are taken out of the secure perimeter.
Now, at this point in the investigation, it does not look like that took place," Bolton said.
Their planning and getaway was aided by others as Bolton says three other inmates have been charged in preparing their escape.
Stumler is back behind bars. Hunt will be brought back to LMDC once he's released from the hospital.
►Contact reporter Robert Bradfield at rbradfield@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@RobertBreports) and Facebook.