Three people were injured and traffic was slowed to a crawl Saturday evening on I-55 North after a car crashed into the back of an ambulance, trapping the car's driver inside, authorities said.

The American Medical Response ambulance was responding to a call of a person needing medical assistance in the median of I-55 at about 5:30 p.m. when it was struck by a Pontiac Bonneville near the Gluckstadt exit, said AMR spokesman Jim Pollard, who was on the scene moments after the crash.

Charles King, 41, of Mount Olive, driver of the Bonneville, was trapped when his car flipped and a small fire started, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Crews from the Madison Police Department and the Gluckstadt Volunteer Fire Department used the Jaws of Life and other devices to free King, Pollard said.

"He was conscious when they got him out, but he was seriously pinned in," Pollard said. He was taken to a local hospital and his condition was unknown late Saturday.

The ambulance, which was not carrying a patient, was attempting to pass through an emergency turn-around point on the median when it was hit, Strain said. The crash caused the ambulance to flip onto its side, and equipment was strewn about the interstate, Pollard said.

Two women in the ambulance — a paramedic and an emergency medical technician — were alert after the crash but were taken to Jackson hospitals for observation, Pollard said. The women, whose names Pollard would not provide, did not suffer life-threatening injuries, he said.

The uninjured woman left in the median had called for help earlier in the evening after a relative abandoned her.

The state Highway Safety Patrol is investigating the crash and no charges have been filed, Strain said.

Jackson, Mississippi