July 7, 2009

Two Killed on Beltway as Pickup Truck Goes Over 60-Foot Embankment  

Two men were killed in a late-night crash when their Nissan pickup truck was struck from the rear, sending it over a guardrail and down a 60-foot embankment.

Medic 741 and Rescue 741B, along with units from Cabin John, Bethesda, and Fairfax County were dispatched at about 2300 hours for an auto fire which turned out to be a personal injury collision on the Outer Loop of the Beltway between River Road and the Thomas Bridge.  Engine 726 was waved down by witnesses from the incident informing them a car had gone over the guardrail and down the embankment. The first units on the scene located a trail of broken brush leading down the treacherous embankment, several hundred feet from the location where the guardrail had been breached. 

The Rescue Squad crew, along with Cabin John Truck 710, advanced their way through tree limbs and bushes about 60 feet down the embankment and found the pickup on its roof.  The driver was partially ejected, with life-threatening injuries.  The passenger, who was pinned in the wreckage, was a fatality.   The crews also discovered that the vehicle was just a few yards from MacArthur Boulevard.

The crew from Rescue Squad 741B removed the driver's side door of the pickup so the trauma patient could be removed, treated, and transported by Medic 741. Unfortunately, the patient was pronounced dead at the hospital.

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