Accident On 270 This Morning

[Scruit]

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2013/09/12/dublin-i270-crash-near-sawmill-road-dumptruck-car.html

 

 

 

I came across this accident scene during my morning commute, arriving before the emergency services. I have a pretty beefy medical kit and fire extinguisher in my trunk, so I made my way up to the front and started checking on people.

There were about 5 witnesses/stranded drivers milling about and they pointed me at the driver of a massive dump truck who was lying on the floor behind his truck. I rushed over to check on him and found him to be confused. He was complaining of being light-headed but checked out to have no injuries except for an apparently broken finger. I gave a passerby my golf umbrella to keep the driver dry and told him I'd back back for his finger after checking on everyone else.

I asked the people milling around if anyone else needed any medical assistance and they pointed me to the front of a truck.

One woman complained of a sore neck, but she was walking around chatting with people so I knew she could wait for EMS.

I asked again, anyone else need medical help? Someone told me to go to the space between the truck and the wall.

As I walked around the corner I found an unrecognizably crushed car. The rear seats were pressed up into the front seat. Any rear-seat passenger would have been killed without a doubt. The floor of the trunk & spare wheel well were crushed upwards and now stood vertically, less than a foot from the driver's head.

The driver's door was open and man was talking with the driver. I saw medical gloves on him and saw he was wearing an EMS t-shirt. He saw me and I told him, "she's all yours.." I asked him if he needed any medical supplies and he said she was ok, just trapped. The FD was en route with jaws of life. We divvied up the patients and I went back to the truck driver.

The truck driver was standing and said he was feeling fine, just nervous (he just rear-ended a car hard enough to reduce it's length by 50% - he needs to be nervous) So I went back to help support the more injured driver.

I stayed out of the EMS guy's way, but had to mention that the engine was still running and should be tuned off due to fire/fume hazard. The driver and EMS guy both said they hadn't noticed it was still on. Remembering a story my sister-in law (traffic cop) told me about a while back where an uninjured (but trapped) driver burned to death when the car caught fire before FD could get there, I grabbed the big fire extinguisher I keep in my trunk and set is within reach and just milled around checking for signs of smoke or fuel leaks.

I heard the fire trucks arriving and realized they couldn't get through due to debris in the emergency lane, so I had to quickly move it - a bumper, fender/wing, headlights and other stuff. The fire truck got through, so I grabbed my medical kit and fire extinguisher and prepared to leave. I got my leave from an officer and headed out. The freeway was still blocked 30 minutes later, but is open again now. Took them an hour to open it again.

Have to say when I walked around the corner of the truck and saw the car smashed down to the size of a Smart Car I was prepared to see a body. The only thing better than seeing the off-duty EMS guy already there was seeing that the lady had no major injuries - just cuts on her hands (her steering wheel was touching the windshield) and freaked out by the fact she was trapped - but the EMS guy calmed her down and I made sure I was ready to try to deal with any fire that might have started.

 

 

 

[Casper]

Good on you. 

[CBBaron]

Wow,

Great job on your response.

 

Its amazing the crash worthiness of modern cars!!

Craig

[bowdog]

Good job!

[jbot]

we should change your name to charlie brown because you're a good man.

 

excellent work, chum!

[Pokey]

You da man!!!!

[ohiomike]

Nice work Scruit

[Tigerpaw]

kudos