Our local newspaper had this photo printed in it the other night and it reminded me of the time we got called to a similar scene down by the California border one time. Highway 199 narrows and becomes quite curvy just before it dips into the "Happy Cows State". I never will forget tearing around one of the tight corners responding to the reported car accident when we almost were involved in another. Crashed right in the middle of the main highway a conversion van was standing on it's own front grill like some kind of unnatural monument. I swear the tires were still spinning around when we arrived. We skidded to a sideways stop in our extrication rig and all jumped out to go see if any body was actually still in this darn phenomena. Sure enough there were two older people still trapped inside, but nobody was going to be able to help them until we stabilized this fireman's death trap some how. After warning the fire engine responding from station #3 that we were all marooned in the middle of the highway they managed to creep around the sharp corner without incident. Since this was Station three's engine I didn't mind if it ended up with another scratch on it. I had their old engine staged (parked) as close to the unusually crashed van as we could without toppling it over. After carefully lashing the vertical standing van to the side of the heavy fire engine with the thick tow straps we carried on board, we finally were able to get a peek inside at the carnage. These poor folks literally had everything they were carrying in their van fall on top them, including their own kitchen sink. Later we found out our older couple had just stopped at a supermarket a few miles down the road and had stocked up on supplies before their big trek north into Oregon. I guess they figured Oregon didn't have any food by the amount of supplies they had loaded on board. Bad move on their part, it had all now tumbled and cascaded over them. After "popping the top" (fireman jargon for riping the top out of a vehicle using an air chisel) off this now defunct van. When using an air chisel to extricate a patient it is very very noisy. It is hard to convince your trapped patients that you are really there to help free them when the noise from this device starts roaring through tough metal. The elderly lady was removed from the wreck pretty quickly but the gentlemen was a different story. He was firmly trapped by the steering wheel and his feet were entangled in the brake pedal. I'm on my belly in the middle of the highway trying to crawl inside through the smashed drivers door window, digging through the grocery items, trying to get close enough to see what my male victim injuries actually were. Every time I would move a can of corn away from his head, three cans of peas would fall onto my poor old gentleman's with a dull thud, thud, thud. Glancing from inside the van, looking around the accident scene it was now beginning to look like a grocery stores shelves had been emptied onto the highway. I became quite concerned when I finally clawed through the food stuffs and found red liquid coming from my old mans ear canal. Fearing he had suffered a serious head trauma I immediately pushed myself inside even farther so I could get a closer look. Shining my flashlight towards his massively oozing wound... what is that I see mixed in that red goo oozing from his head?
Taking my gloved finger I swipe some of the gruel from his ear and slowly brought it to my nose. With a audible sigh of relief from me, all it was was Ragu Sauce with fresh onion favoring. The red tomato paste had exploded on impact and drained through the grub into his ear. I didn't want spaghetti for dinner for a few weeks after that unusual call.
Taking my gloved finger I swipe some of the gruel from his ear and slowly brought it to my nose. With a audible sigh of relief from me, all it was was Ragu Sauce with fresh onion favoring. The red tomato paste had exploded on impact and drained through the grub into his ear. I didn't want spaghetti for dinner for a few weeks after that unusual call.
