Amazing Car crash!

[legion1202]

So i`m in P2 and i`m on my way to school yesterday. I`m driving on the highway and I go to change the channel on the radio. I take my eye off the road for .5 secs and when I look up, the highway is a mess. There are cars dodging this red compact car(i think a honda). The honda is doing 360's and goes flying into a guard rail bounces off and goes across three lanes and crashes into the other guard rail.I am now doin like 15mph on emgerency lane and I stop. There is smoke and car parts everywhere!. I grab some of my ride long gear(sissors,pen light,etc) and carefully run over to the car. I`m thinking the worst because of the speed of impact. I run up to the drivers side and the lady is trying to call 911 but cant seem to keep the phone in her hands. I ask her if shes ok and she says yes but she says she is stuck and cant get out. I notice there is no air bag deployment. I also notice a crying 6mo old in the back seat. I manage to get the the back door open and start looking over the infant. Hes crying but settles down and starts chewing on cookies. Mom is still stuck in the car and there is still smoke I give her a quick look over. A sheriff pulls up behind me and notices i`m in uniform for school. I tell him what we go and he helps me open the drivers side door.

Now the seat belt wont come off. Yes!!, I think to my self I get to cut the seat belt... The lady doesnt complain of any neck or back pain and wants to see her kid, i advise her she might want to stay but shes afraid of the smoke. So she gets up and ask's if she can take her kid out of the back seat. Now a off dutey fire fighter is there with us. With out thinking I say yes you can grab you kid. There is some smoke and we are in the middle of the high way. I however mean dont take the kid out of the car seat and the off dutey corrected me by saying we need to fill the voids first but there is nothing to fill the voids. The mother is fine with this. I know he is right and i`m embarrassed I didnt think of that. I knew we had to keep him in the car seat even though the little guy felt fine(but we didnt know for sure).. But I forgot you should fill the voids.

I new the car wasnt going to catch on fire (at least I thought that) but say if there was a danger would just taking them out of the car seat be good enough and then fill the voids? I feel embarrassed that I let the slip by me.

 

[adamjh3]

It all comes down to situational circumstance. All the c-spine in the world isn't going to prevent your patient or you from inhaling smoke or catching fire

 

[mgr22]

It doesn't sound like filling voids was a priority. Don't worry about it.

 

[adamjh3]

Apologies for the double post; I was on my phone and something came up

Taking from what I said above; if the little guy in the car seat is in any sort of real immediate danger (one could argue that a compact car in the middle of a busy freeway without a BRT or line of police cars blocking the accident is immediate danger) it shouldn't be too hard to cut the belts securing the car seat to the vehicle and carefully extricate him in that. It should actually be easier than fumbling with the buckles and snaps and all that on these new car seats.

Once you have the car seat away from the vehicle and in a safe location, then you can work on c-spine; remember, you keep kids in their car seats if you can, much easier and safer than trying to pull them out, especially the young'uns with floppy necks.

 

[firetender]

What you would do good to look at is what was your state of mind as you experienced this? Were you indecisive? Did you "allow" Mom to set the pace of the interventions? Did you WAIT for someone more qualified to make the call? Did you freak and freeze, idly watching as the Mom twisted her kid around? Were you "aware" of what was right or spending time, on-scene, debating with yourself?

You're new, so these are some of the things you should be looking at. Wherever there might be gaps in your knowledge, fill them is so, on-scene -- wherever and whenever on-scene happens for you, you're CLEAR on the role you need to play.

 

[Hockey]

You in MI?

 

[legion1202]

I live in Fl.

I actually did quite well with managing the scene. I acted before for the off duty FF came buy cutting the lady out.. Checking to make sure the baby was good as far as we can see without any imaging equipment . I am not FF certified so I did not know what the smoke was or if there was a chance of the car catching fire. I new the car was destroy and the engine was almost in this lady's lap. Thinking about it now.. If I was on a ride around I probably would have grabbed towels or something to fill the voids then cut the seat belts out. But I had no equipment besides trauma shears, b/p cuff, scope and my pen. So I went off that lol. Next time I will know... At least I didn't kill anyone =) Thanks for the responses!