Eighty Feet
Some people survive crashes that should have killed them.
It had been one of those shifts. Todd and I were working Medic 61, and we’d run calls most of the twenty-four-hour tour. Busy doesn’t begin to cover it.
Morning came and we were finally heading back to the station on A Street. We’re always cautious at intersections - nobody pays attention anymore. We had the right of way, but Todd slowed down as we approached. The intersection was a notorious T-bone generator.
[Photo 1: Cab view in rain - Firefly generated]
Right on cue, a car doing 60-70 mph blew the stop sign and missed us by inches.
Later that day, I was driving back from the ER. A jackass came flying out of a parking lot. I hit the brakes hard. If I hadn’t, we would have knocked him into next year.
It was turning out to be one of those days.
Then it started raining.
Rush hour. We were heading back to the station and got caught by the light at 112th. Waited to turn right onto Pacific Avenue.
Todd made the turn. As we rolled forward, we thought we saw a flash up ahead through the rain. We looked but saw nothing obvious.
We came up to 116th to turn left toward the station. A new pickup truck was stopped in the road with hazards on, window down.
We were in the center turn lane, both of us looking right, trying to figure out why the truck was stopped there.
The medic unit rocked hard.
A woman’s voice yelled in Todd’s ear: “DID YOU SEE THAT?!”
She’d jumped onto the step on the driver’s side, causing the whole rig to rock.
“See what?” we asked.
“A truck jumped the embankment!”
I told Todd to hang tight while I went to look. I played Frogger through rush hour traffic and got to the sidewalk.
Sure as shit, there was a Chevy S-10. Center-punched into a tree.
[Photo 2: Actual crash scene - S-10 wrapped around tree]
It had to have flown about eighty feet to end up where it did.
I requested additional resources and made my way to the truck. Found a woman unconscious in the driver’s seat.
[Photo 3: Extrication scene in rain - Firefly generated]
We extricated her with little difficulty. Once in the medic unit, she got the full meal deal on the way to the ER - airway management, IV access, full trauma workup.
[Photo 4: Inside medic unit treating patient - Firefly generated]
Witnesses said she’d started accelerating at A Street - about a quarter mile back - and floored it. Shot across Pacific Avenue at rush hour through multiple lanes of traffic without hitting anyone. Launched off the embankment at the intersection and went airborne.
Eighty feet through the air before the tree stopped her.
It turned out she’d had a seizure while driving.
Even more impressive: she only ended up with a broken foot.
Three near-misses in one shift - a car that almost T-boned us, a driver that nearly pulled out in front of us, and then this: a woman who flew eighty feet through the air, center-punched a tree at highway speed, and walked away with a broken foot.
The universe was trying to tell us something that day. We just weren’t sure what.
Love your EMS stories. Isn’t it funny the simple accident can have the worst injuries and the big ones walk away like an angel was along for the ride?