Jasper & San Augustine TDCJ employees involved in van crash in Polk County

A San Augustine man was at the wheel and a Jasper man was a passenger in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice van which rolled over several times in a crash in Polk County. The accident occurred shortly after 8:00 Sunday morning on U.S. Highway 59, about 8 miles south of Livingston. The Texas Department of Public Safety says the van was driven by Jatavion Rigsby, 26, of San Augustine, and was occupied by another TDCJ employee, Zachary Young, 30, of Jasper. There was one inmate onboard; Louis Matthews, 61, a wheelchair-bound prisoner from the Gib Lewis Unit near Woodville. According to DPS, the van driver abruptly veered left, then over corrected to the right, went off the highway and then rolled the van three limes before hitting several trees. Following the incident, the driver, Rigsby, was flown by medical helicopter to a hospital in Kingwood while his colleague, Young, was taken by ambulance to that same hospital. Meanwhile, firefighters had to use the jaws-of-life to open the escape-proof van to reach the trapped prisoner, Matthews. They then used an aerial fire truck and rope to lift the prisoner and his wheelchair out of the wreckage. He was then flown by medical helicopter to a Houston hospital.