As 2013 draws to a close, we're taking a look back at the year's most popular news videos on Arkansas Online. Some reflect the most intriguing news stories — natural disasters, political scandals and extraordinary crimes — and others reflect the happier side of life in Arkansas.
Here are the top 10 videos that drew reader interest this year:
10.) A tractor-trailer crashed into an Interstate 40 overpass support column on March 7, spilling its load and igniting an inferno that left the driver fatally burned and motorists at a standstill for miles in both directions. TRUCK FIRE SNARLS I-40 TRAFFIC
9.) A tornado that touched down in rural Van Buren County in April damaged dozen structures, destroying five of them and injuring several people. TORNADO HITS VAN BUREN COUNTY.
8.) Authorities release a short video about a pickup believed to be involved in the fatal drive-by shooting of Samantha Cass Olson, 31, in the North Little Rock intersection of John F. Kennedy and McCain boulevards. VIDEO RELEASED, TIPS SOUGHT IN NLR FATAL SHOOTING.
7.) Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, then a Democratic candidate for governor, spoke in January for the first time about his extramarital relationship with a Hot Springs attorney that came to light last December. DUSTIN MCDANIEL ADDRESSES AFFAIR.
6.) Derrick Estell, who escaped from the Garland County jail in July, made his way through a service window in a booking area while another inmate distracted officers. INMATE ESCAPES FROM GARLAND COUNTY JAIL.
5.) Little Rock's Leonard Cooper won the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament after answering the final question with: “Who is some guy in Normandy. But I just won $75,000!” ESTEM STUDENT WINS JEOPARDY! TEEN TOURNAMENT.
4.) Kali Hardig, a 12-year-old Benton girl, contracted a rare form of parasitic meningitis at a Little Rock lake this summer and survived. There have been just two well-documented cases of survival of the illness in North America in the past 45 years. KALI HARDIG HEADS HOME AFTER SURVIVING OFTEN-FATAL ILLNESS.
3.) An Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. pipeline ruptured in March, dumping an estimated 210,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into the Northwoods subdivision and threatening the local water supply. OIL SPILL IN MAYFLOWER THREATENS LAKE CONWAY
2.) After hijacking a school bus at knife point in Jacksonville in October, a Jacksonville man led police on an early morning pursuit until he surrendered and was arrested near Cabot, police said. POLICE RELEASE FOOTAGE FROM SCHOOL-BUS CHASE.
1.) David Lebow's first thought upon awakening one Friday in May to rapidly rising waters in the creek by his home was to save the lawnmower in the yard from drifting off. He didn't know then that a lot more than just his lawnmower was about to be heading downstream. ODEN HOME WASHED AWAY IN FLOOD.