I was going to rake leaves and mow grass today, but it’s kind of an ugly day with drizzle and chilly air conditions outside, so I thought about reading my book, but decided instead to look through this website when I spotted this thread and thought some of you may be interested in the following feature.
I had only been a State Trooper for 4 years, so I kind of got the jobs no one else begged for. It was a very ugly night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, just past the Somerset exit, which is just east of Pittsburgh and noted for it’s icy, snowy, cold winters. On this night, it was sleeting and snowing. The state trucks were out putting some anti-skid materials on the roadway. The time was 10:10 p.m. when I received an emergency call that 2 semis, a Trailways bus and 3 cars were involved in an accident with injuries. This is called a Code 2 for short.
As I sped to the accident site, I was notified that 2 other units were also responding. When I got to the site, I noted that the accident had happened 17 minutes before I arrived, according to the state dispatcher. One car was really banged up pretty badly. I noticed a young woman trying to shove her door open enough for her to squeeze out. I ran out of my car and got to her car, grabbed the doors with gloves on my hands and was able to open the door wide enough to get her out
Just then, her right rear side broke into flames and she started screaming in my ear that her baby was in the back seat and strapped into her car seat. She tried to get back into the car through the front door, but that wasn’t going to work. I tried to open the back door, but it would only open a few inches. Meanwhile, this woman is going berserk by yelling and screaming and crying. Luckily, a female Trooper also responded so I asked her to take care of the woman while I tried to get the door open, which just wasn’t budging. The only thing I knew to do was to get the one fireman to grab his jaws of life and tear open the door. I wasn’t crazy about busting out the window with the baby right next to it.
Together, we were able to use the tool to open the door and get the baby out. I sent the baby and the woman to the hospital because it appeared to me that the baby was having respiratory problems, which was probably from the smoke. We had to transport 3 others to the hospital, including the bus driver. Thankfully, no one died. The WB side of the Turnpike was shut down for 4 1/2 hours for the accident recreation specialist could take pictures and make drawings.
This accident was the first time the state university used their helicopter services to fly crash victims to a hospital for treatment. The helicopter also had a Resident Doctor and nurse onboard.
