March 9, 2011
Rescue Squad Assists Wheaton With Extricating Two Trapped
Rescue Squad 741 assisted with vehicle stabilization and extrication of two persons trapped in a minivan after an early morning 2-car T-bone crash in Wheaton.
Wheaton Rescue Squad requested B-CC to respond to assist with stabilization of the minivan, which had been struck by a Dodge Durango SUV in its passenger side door. The force of the impact spun the minivan around and rolled it onto its passenger side. The Durango than overrode the minivan so that the SUV’s front tires were almost 2 feet off the ground.
Rescue Squad 741 arrived on scene at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Reedie Drive to find that Wheaton had begun stabilizing the minivan using Paratech struts and ratchet straps. But because of the SUV’s precarious position with its front end sitting on top of the minivan, Wheaton Chief 742 directed the Squad crew to set up a redundant stabilization system. The crew did this by putting a Paratech strut at the minivan’s A post, tying it back to a nearby tree, and placing wedges and cribbing in voids underneath the vehicle.
Once the minivan was stabilized, crews began preparing the SUV to be pulled away from the minivan in order to provide access so that the roof could be removed. However, one of the patients crawled out of the vehicle through the front windshield, which had been removed. Rescue Squad 741’s crew then determined that the other patient was only entangled in the rear view mirror. That was quickly cut away, enabling quick removal of the patient from the second vehicle.
Both patients were assessed by Wheaton Rescue Squad ambulances and transported to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.
