Rescue Squad Extricates One Pinned During Early Morning Rush Hour

Rescue Squad crews faced a complex extrication resulting from a 4-vehicle crash on East West Highway at Glengalen Lane.  Four persons were injured, including one trapped and one pinned, in separate vehicles.

Rescue Squad 741 arrived on scene immediately after first due Engine 707 from Chevy Chase, and was directed to one of two vehicles involved in an offset head-on collision, where they found the driver pinned.  Because they had a crew of 5, they were able to split into 2 crews and begin spreading and cutting doors on both sides of the vehicle. 

After removing all 4 doors and cutting away the roof, they began to push the dashboard away from the patient’s legs using hydraulic rams.  However, this operation was complicated because the force of the collision had moved the driver’s seat and caused significant deformity, limiting access to a purchase point along the door frame.  Instead, the crew clamped the spreaders onto the rocker panel, which created a base for the ram.  Once freed from this entanglement, the crew was able to remove the driver, who had suffered significant lower extremity trauma, from the vehicle on to a backboard.  The driver was then handed over to a medic crew for treatment and transport.

While the Rescue Squad was completing its extrication, Truck 706 popped a door to remove the driver of another vehicle, using Rescue Squad 741’s second set of hydraulic tools.

Medic 741 was on another call at the time of dispatch, and so the two extricated patients were transported as traumas by medic units from Wheaton and Silver Spring.  Ambulance 741 Charlie did respond, and transported 2 patients who suffered lesser injuries to Suburban Hospital.

In addition to the Rescue Squad, units from Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Wheaton, and Bethesda responded. 

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