Squad Has 2 Extrications on a Busy Sunday Morning

August 14 – In less than 6 hours, 21 separate Rescue Squad units responded to 14 separate incidents including 7 personal injury collisions.  Rescue Squad 741 extricated patients from vehicles in two of those collisions.

While returning from a collision on the Beltway at about 8:00 a.m., Rescue Squad 741 heard the Montgomery County Duty Operations Chief report that he was on the scene of a collision with one person trapped at Rockville Pike and Cedar Lane.  Since the Squad was on Old Georgetown Road, just a short distance away, it arrived on scene almost immediately.  It found that a SUV had struck the driver’s side door of a minivan that was trying to make a left turn.  The crew quickly stabilized the minivan using step chocks and wedges.  They popped the driver’s side door using the hydraulic spreaders and cut the hinges to completely remove the door, enabling the patient to be removed.  The patient was packaged, assessed and transported to Suburban Hospital with non-traumatic injuries.

About two hours later, at 10:30, Rescue Squad 741 was dispatched to the Outer Loop of I-495 between Connecticut Avenue and Rockville Pike.  It arrived on scene to find a passenger car on the left shoulder, about a foot from the Jersey barrier.  Although there was access to the driver through the passenger side door, it was not possible to remove her over the console.  The driver side door was not jammed shut, but there was not enough room to open it, either.  One member of the squad crew was able to approach the door through the narrow gap from the rear of the vehicle to cut the top hinge of the door with the O-cutter.  However, he was not able to gain access to the lower hinge.  Instead, another crew member approached the door from the front of the vehicle and used spreaders to break off the lower door hinge.  Removal of the door created enough space to slide a backboard over the Jersey barrier into the driver’s seat and remove the patient.

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