Utah Civilians Lift Burning Car to Save Man

[PFDRes47cue 653]

Amazing video that I found on firehouse.com

Edited September 13, 2011 by PFDRes47cue

[Dinosaur 844]

Clearly a different mindset out in Utah vs. the Brooklyn video.

A skinny chick in flip flops appears to have been the IC, too. LOL

[JohnnyOV 2]

This gives me some hope that there are still good people out there willing to help when needed.

[Alpinerunner 61]

Yes it is a great thing to see. It's also in stark contast to an incident in Hartford a couple years ago where an old man was hit by a car and bystanders just walked up to him to take cell phone pictures while he was laying in the street

Edited September 13, 2011 by Alpinerunner

[justanothermedic 5]

Yes it is a great thing to see. It's also in stark contast to an incident in Hartford a couple years ago where an old man was hit by a car and bystanders just walked up to him to take cell phone pictures while he was laying in the street

Growing up in the East, I recall that my parents were always good at stopping and rendering aid. I also remember waiting at an accident on I-84 in New York circa 1969 and seeing impatient people drive over people's belongings laying in the road rather than wait (my parents were appalled; it made quite an impact on me - I can still hear the crunching of pots and pans).

I wasn't involved in emergency services until after we moved West, so I can't compare East vs. West. I'm not terribly surprised about the Utah behavior; people here generally seem to stop and offer to help. The biggest issue is trying to strike a balance between bystander/civilian safety and using the additional resources.

The best example I have is from about 7 years ago. The fire district I'm on is quite small (~120 square miles 1st due, several hundred square miles mutual aid). We got called to a rollover right on the Western edge of the district. At the time, we had very few responders on the Western end; most of our folks responded from our main station about 14 miles East (and down a mountain pass) from the accident. Mutual aid from the next district over was ~30 miles away. Our SOG was that I would respond POV to the scene, and sort it out as well as possible (we now have a station on the Western end, and more responders, so we don't do this anymore). I arrived on scene (with my PPE and radio) to find what appeared to be multiple vehicles, some of which were demolished (it turned out to be 1 full sized pickup towing 2 trailers; a house trailer (which transformed into matchsticks) and a flatbed with ATVs on it). My response was pretty quick - probably 5 minutes from page to on scene - but there were already ~20 people and numerous vehicles who had stopped to help. All this on a 2-lane highway that is 'busy' by Wyoming standards, but not really very busy ... I think pretty much every passing vehicle must have stopped!

My first problem was figuring out what had happened (it wasn't obvious), then figuring out who was actually _in_ the accident and who was helping. Since I had bunkers on, I at least looked like I was in charge(!); I yelled out, "if you were in the accident, raise your hand!". I quickly found out I had 4 patients. 2 were walking wounded (I had them sit down, and assigned a couple of civilians to monitor them, after giving them instructions). 1 had been ejected _over_ a barbed wire fence, and was laying face down AAOx4 but clearly hurt and in pain (I triaged him, then instructed a few more civilians on how to hold C-spine [yes, I gave them gloves too]), then was directed to patient 4, who was laying in the back seat of the pickup complaining of lower back pain (triaged, then assigned a few more civilians to hold C-spine and monitor him). I then took a few civilians and had them help me get traffic control started (it was mostly off the road, but there was some lane intrusion). Once the rest of the department got on scene (it seemed like it took forever, but was probably about 15-18 minutes), I started replacing civilians with our folks. I was blown away by how helpful the civilians were. All they wanted was some direction, and to help. Without them, it would have been a huge mess, and patient care would have been delayed.

I can't say for sure that this always happens, but I have way more stories of people stopping and helping than driving past.

Results, by the way:

2 walking wounded - transported & released (no injuries)

1 ejection - fx pelvis

1 back pain - fx lower (lumbar area) vertebrae

[xfirefighter484x 234]

WOW!!!!!!!!! Amazing footage! There are still Good Samaritans out there!! There have been stories of mothers who have babies trapped under large objects and out of sheer survival instinct, they gain strength to life the object alone for their young (and I am talking about humans).

Thank you for sharing this!!

But why didn't they crib at all?!?!?!?

Edited September 15, 2011 by xfirefighter484x
For Political Correctness

[PFDRes47cue 653]

In all seriousness, this truly is amazing and a wonderful sight too see! It is such a relief to know that people will still team together to potentially save the life of a stranger. Good work by all!!!

[Alpinerunner 61]

Well at least this rescue operation went better than the one recently posted with the spreaders!

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Thats quite remarkable. You only hear stories about this kind of stuff, rarely is it caught on film.

Does anyone have the news story attached to this video clip?

I would have loved to see the rest of the video to see the Fire/EMS/LEO response.

[PFDRes47cue 653]

Thats quite remarkable. You only hear stories about this kind of stuff, rarely is it caught on film.

Does anyone have the news story attached to this video clip?

I would have loved to see the rest of the video to see the Fire/EMS/LEO response.

I too would loe ot see the rest of the footage. As far as LEO response, there appears to be one Officer on scene during the footage. (or at least someone in what appears to be Officer attire)

[Bull McCaffrey 162]

Amazing! This was in stark contrast to the civilians in Brooklyn who were more interested in filming the victim instead of lending a hand.

[FirefighterJr 2]

Here is the link to the longer video, which shows the rescue and what was done after they pulled they guy out from under the car.

http://news.hjnews.com/vmix_d78f8cbe-dda6-11e0-afa6-001cc4c03286.html

[PFDRes47cue 653]

Here is the link to the longer video, which shows the rescue and what was done after they pulled they guy out from under the car.

http://news.hjnews.c...1cc4c03286.html

Thanks for posting the full video.

Really great job by the first to LEO who kept the scene under control. The one Officer specifically, allowed the citizens to help, then made sure to move them away from the car quickly. Smart thinking by attempting to extinguish the fire as well considering the patient was fairly close to he vehicles. It is nice to see the citizens who helped out, move away from the incident and let the professionals do their job once their assistance was no longer needed. Too often, we have people linger around the scene and get in the way.

Not critiquing or anything but, one thing that I noticed was that the LEO were going to move he patient out of the danger zone but then it seems they changed their minds. Granted it appears he fluids from the vehicle and motorcycle are moving away from the patient but I did notice that the patient and the people helping the patient were in the direct path of the smoke and the extinguisher. I was not there, and I doubt anyone members of this site were but it is important to if possible move the patient as far away as possible from all danger. Unless for some reason this is not a good idea, which I am sure the LEO in this video had a good reason.

Really awesome job by all people involved!