Workers stabilized the car and cut away the windshield to free the woman trapped inside. —Macklin Reid photo
A car on its side across the road, a woman trapped inside, firefighters with their extraction tools working to get her out.
Despite the dramatic scene of the accident on Whipstick Road Friday afternoon, they were all calm as they did their jobs.
“She said she was all right. That’s why we weren’t in a rush to get her out,” Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Myers said after the young woman was safely off to the ambulance.
There were a lot of people there, more than a dozen firefighters in turnout gear — some the yellow of the full-time firefighters, some in the black of volunteers— and also some police. There was quite a bit of equipment — and a lot of work to do.
“The big thing was stabilizing the car, so we could move around the car and work on it,” Assistant Chief Myers said
“The idea was to get the person out. If it’s just laying on its side and not properly stabilized, the car can fall either way — and that can result in crushing one of the rescuers, or the person inside being jolted so they sustain additional injuries.
“The patient didn’t seem seriously injured, so we opted to take a little extra time and really secure the vehicle,” he said.
“If the patient had not been stable, there are some methods we could have used that are faster.”
When it came to the actual work of cutting the woman out of the Nissan SUV that sat on its side, fully across the narrow road, a couple of guys — one, two, maybe three — were at the heart of the operation.
“The shift commander generally assigns people based on where they’re riding that day,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
The guys on the fire engine usually do the extraction, the guys who drove the ambulance are assigned to patient care. There are no specialists — everybody’s capable of doing all the various things that may need to be done.
“We rotate that amongst all the guys, so everybody gets a shot to sit in each seat,” Assistant Chief Myers said. “Our staff is 100% interchangeable. Any guy in the department, from the chief on down, can jump in and complete any of the assignments, fill any of the slots.”
The Ridgefield department is fairly practiced at extractions. How many does it do?
“We do an awful lot of car crashes,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
“It sort of depends on your definition, from times where we just have to pop a door open, just for convenience to get someone out … The really, really bad ones, maybe a dozen a year.”
Annual police statistics consistently show about two crashes per day in Ridgefield.
When firefighters arrive at the scene, an initial indicator of the situation’s severity comes from whether the person is in or out of the car.
If they’re still in it, that’s not good.
“That’s a sign to us that we want to take a closer look and do it kind of quickly,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
“Generally speaking, if you’ve ever been involved in a crash, the first thing you want to do is get out.”
As they worked Friday, the firefighters kept the woman trapped inside the car informed of what they were doing.
“We’re going to cut some glass,” Firefighter Ryan Eckoff told her, before he cut out the windshield.
She climbed out herself, leaving the overturned car through the cut-away windshield, holding a bundle of belongings so tightly it seemed she was clutching a baby.
Firefighters escorted her to the stretcher, where she lay down, still clutching her bundle.
Firefighters took the stretcher, and the woman, off to the waiting ambulance.
She was taken to Danbury Hospital for evaluation.
“A rollover is an automatic trauma alert. If the vehicle rolls over, we automatically recommend that the person go to hospital,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
Yes, recommend.
“If they’re legally capable of making an informed decision — they’re not incapacitated by injury, or drugs or alcohol — we have to have consent to treat, consent to transport,” he said.
“Just like when you go to the doctor’s office, they give you a form to sign — this is consent to treat you. Same thing, only we get it verbally most of the time.”
Although the woman appeared to be all right — she climbed out of the car herself, once the windshield was cut away, and walked over to the stretcher — the firefighters definitely wanted to take her to the hospital.
“The danger of a roll-over is that when the car rolls over, obviously there are G-forces involved, so the car sustains damage,” Assistant Chief Myers said. “Physics says anybody in the car absorbed the same amount of energy.
“If it’s enough to cave in the roof of the car, and the person was in the car, the odds suggest the person has internal injuries, so why take a chance with that?” he said.
In Friday’s accident on Whipstick Road, the roof wasn’t caved-in, but there was force enough to put the SUV on its side.
“Even though the person looks and feels OK, there’s the chance they have some small internal injury that could progress to something worse, if it’s untreated,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
“We have some of the most advanced paramedics in the state, but it’s no substitute for an evaluation at the emergency department by a physician.”
Friday afternoon, the ambulance did make a trip to the hospital.
“She made a good choice and went, at least, to be evaluated,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
It all took about half an hour.
“We arrived on scene at 1:52. The patient was out of the vehicle at 2:22,” Assistant Chief Myers said.
Walking back to his car, a policeman could be heard on the phone.
“I’ll let her know I talked to you,” he said, presumably talking to a family member — a husband, or a mother or sister maybe.
A big truck from the Limestone Service Station was already on the scene, waiting to clear the overturned car from snowy road.