Agencies work together to extricate accident victim
Press release from Gainesville Fire Rescue
At 3:26 a.m. on December 27, the Combined Communications Center (CCC) paged out Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) Engine 1 and Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) Rescue 31 to an accident at the intersection of SE 11th Ave and SE 13th St. On scene, Gainesville Police Department (GPD) officers informed the GFR unit (E1) that four people were involved in a single-vehicle accident, three people were out of the vehicle, and one patient was still entrapped. E1 Lt. Tracy Higdon upgraded the call to a vehicle accident with extrication. CCC added GFR Ladder Truck 1, Rescue Squad 1, District 1, and Alachua County Rescue Transport 30. Additional units arrived on the scene within minutes of being dispatched to find GFR E1 evaluating three patients, while Rescue 31 attended to the one patient who remained entrapped inside the vehicle.
GFR District 1 (Cary Williams) arrived on the scene and established incident command. GFR units Ladder Truck 1 and SQ1 began extricating the patient out of the vehicle upon arrival. Due to the vehicle’s significant damage, it took crews 30 minutes to free the patient out of the car. A total of four patients were transported to Shands by ACFR Transport Rescues 30, 31, and 35, two with life-threatening injuries and two with non-life-threatening injuries. GPD is investigating the cause of the accident.
Gainesville Fire Rescue would like to remind drivers to look both ways before entering busy roadways, obey all traffic laws, and always wear your seatbelts.