CENTRALIA — A 41-year-old Royalton man was airlifted to a St. Louis area hospital early this morning after he was involved in a head-on crash with a City of Centralia fire truck.

According to crash reports, around 12:30 this morning, the city’s new pumper truck had just left the station of South Poplar when firefighters noticed a pickup a few blocks away was driving the wrong way. They changed lanes to avoid a collision, but the driver of the truck Dustan Threewitt also changed lanes at the same time.

The fire truck then stopped but was struck by Threewitt’s pickup truck. The pumper truck will be unusable until an estimated $40,000 in repairs is made.

Firefighters were en route to a lift assist when the crash occurred.