In the late evening hours on January 18th, 2015, Calvert County Sheriff’s Office noticed a speeding vehicle just north of Lusby. A Calvert Deputy attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle fled from police. The suspect tried to elude police through Lusby on Route 4 southbound, coming into St. Mary’s County reaching speeds over 100 mph crossing the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge. Once in St. Mary’s, deputies from the St. Mary’s Sherriff’s office and Troopers from Maryland State Police joined in the pursuit. As the vehicle was coming around a corner on Patuxent Beach Rd, the driver for unknown reasons lost control, struck the guardrail, rolled over and landed on an embankment trapping the driver in the vehicle.

Engine Company 9, Squad 7, Rescue 83, Squad 3 Paramedic 389, Ambulance 838, and Medic 2 were dispatched. Engine 91 arrived to find the vehicle, a four door sedan over the guardrail, halfway down the embankment, on its roof with the driver trapped under the dash. All squads arrived quickly after that and immediately went to securing the vehicle. Due to the slippery, muddy, and steep bank, this posed a challenge for responders. Initially the only thing holding the vehicle from sliding even further was a small four inch diameter tree. Chains and come alongs were used to secure the vehicle from sliding further down the embankment into the ravine and a creek at the bottom and the Rescue 42 and Paratech struts were used to stabilize the vehicle from side to side.

After the vehicle was stabilized to the best of their ability, crews went to work extricating the victim. The victim was extensively trapped in the vehicle under the dash. Both front doors were removed in order to gain initial access. Once inside the crews worked to lift the dash. Additional rams, and cutters were used to help to free the dash. Once the dash was off of the victim, they still needed more room to get the victim out. Using again even more rams, the roof of the vehicle was hyper extended to gain a couple of inches in the vehicle so he could be moved out.

Once the victim was extricated, he was turned over to Paramedic 387 and Medic 2, and flown to Prince Georges Trauma Center with life threating injuries.

Engine 93 established the landing site on the scene.

With the complexity of this extrication, it took 45 minutes from dispatch to extricate the victim.

The Bay District Volunteer Fire Department would like to thank all responding companies for help with this complex extrication.

Command was held by Deputy Chief Peter Marshall, Safety was held by Safety 3 Wayne Johnson, and the Extrication Group was held by Captain 3 Danny Burroughs and Chief 7A Bryan Riley.

All Photo’s courtesy of Southern Maryland News Net