A hit-and-run accident on U.S. 27 Monday morning left one driver seriously injured and police combing nearby woods for another driver who fled the scene.

At 6:49 a.m., the Georgia State Patrol received a call that a Lexus with Hamilton County, Tenn., plates collided head-on with an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. The Lexus was traveling north in the southbound lanes of Hwy. 27, ac-cording to Master Trooper Bowman with Georgia State Patrol, the officer in charge on the scene.

The driver of the Lexus left the vehicle and tried to pry off his own license plate before fleeing into the nearby woods. The vehicle is not believed to have been stolen, according to the State Patrol.

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First responders had to use the “jaws of life” to rescue the driver of the Ciera, who was life-flighted from the scene. His injuries are non-life threatening, according to GSP.

Traffic on southbound U.S. 27 was tied up for nearly an hour while the scene was cleared. Officers rerouted ve-hicles off of U.S. 27 at Shattuck Industrial Boulevard, north of the accident.

Officers from several agencies, including Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Motor Carriers Division and Walker County Sheriff’s Department, set up a perimeter around the woods east of the accident, between U.S. 27 and Trion Highway, extending about a mile north and south of the scene, to search the woods for the driver of the Lexus, be-lieved to be a Hispanic male. A K-9 unit from Hayes State Prison was deployed in an attempt to track the suspect, but was unsuccessful.

Georgia State Patrol categorized the situation as “not an immediate danger” for citizens that are nearby in the area of the accident, but advise people to be cautious and call 911 if there is a sighting of y notice suspicious activity or see a person fitting the description given in the area.

The suspect may have cut his hands, troopers suspect, due to blood being found on the plate left at the scene. The search concluded early Monday afternoon.

“The investigation will be focusing in a different direction due to leads gained from evidence at the scene and from other sources,” according to Sgt. First Class Don Stultz with the Georgia State Patrol.