photo by: Sara Shepherd

Emergency crews respond to a serious injury accident reportedly involving a car and a pedestrian, near Sixth and Maine streets, Friday afternoon, April 6, 2018.

A pedestrian with critical injuries was flown to a hospital after a collision with a vehicle near West Sixth and Maine streets, according to police.

The incident happened just after 1:10 p.m. Friday in the far right lane of eastbound West Sixth Street, just before the Maine Street stoplight.

Arriving officers found a 42-year-old man with critical injuries, Officer Drew Fennelly of the Lawrence Police Department said in an email. The man was flown by helicopter to an area hospital, Fennelly said.

Initial information indicates that the man had been at or near the bus stop on the south side of the road in the 1100 block of West Sixth Street when he either stepped or fell into the street, striking the eastbound pickup, Fennelly said.

Shortly after the incident medics could be seen loading the man onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. The man did not appear to be conscious.

The helicopter was called to a landing zone by Lawrence Memorial Hospital a couple of blocks away.

The man driving the pickup, who did not give his name, said he saw the man sitting in a lawn chair that was by the bus stop sign, then get up and appear to take a step toward the street before falling headfirst into the street.

The driver said he wasn’t sure if the man’s body or something inside the paper bags he was carrying actually struck the truck, and that he did not see damage to the pickup. He said the man’s head appeared to be bleeding afterward.

Fennelly said he did not have an update on the man’s condition after he was transported to the hospital.

Eastbound Sixth Street was closed after the incident, but police cleared the scene and it was reopened in less than an hour.