‘Power tools’ used to rescue crash victim

This auto is so badly damaged, emergency first responders must rip the top off the car to rescue the victim at this outer East Portland crash …

In the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood, PF&R Truck 7 blocks SE Powell Boulevard to give the crew quick access to a car badly damaged in a crash.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

Traffic slowed, then stopped, after a two-vehicle collision on SE Powell Boulevard, a block west of SE 111^th Avenue, on October 1 at 12:45 p.m.

“It looked to me like the truck was pulling [north] out of a driveway, about to head [east] on Powell – when a car, also heading that way [east], came along, and they crashed,” Jack Kruse told East Portland News.

After hitting a pickup truck pulling out of a driveway, this car skids before slamming into a fence and a tree.

Police closed off the street, as Portland Fire & Rescue Mill Park Station crews with Rescue 7, Engine 7, and Truck 7 came to the scene.

One of the two-person Rescue 7 crew, first at the scene, was overheard saying that she preferred waiting four minutes until Truck 7 arrived to attempt to rescue the victim, who was trapped in a silver Hyundai four-door sedan.

Completely removing the roof of the car allows paramedics to safely extricate the crash victim.

At the scene, Truck 7’s crew swiftly unpacked their Holmatro Vehicle Rescue Tools, and in moments, they had cut the top off the crushed car.

PF&R paramedics wasted no time removing the patient, and preparing the victim for transport to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment.

With patient now onboard, an AMR ambulance heads out to a local hospital.

The Dodge Ram Sport 4×4 truck hit by the car had relatively little apparent damage after the smashup.

“This shows that it’s worthwhile to take an extra moment of waiting in traffic, and double-checking by looking in both directions, before pulling out on a busy road like Powell Boulevard,” an officer at the scene reflected.

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