CRASH PINS TWO IN ELYRIA

A single car crash in Elyria sent three people by helicopter to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland Tuesday night.

Lieutenant Charlie Norris of the Elyria Fire Department said that a Honda Accord, driven by Debra Adkins, clipped the mirror of a truck while traveling on Route 57 near East Broad Street around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night. The Accord then went off the road striking a guard rail and utility pole on the northeast corner of the intersection, pinning Adkins and her 15-year-old son Gabriel in the front seat. Adkins’ one-year-old daughter was in the back seat fully restrained in a car seat at the time of the crash and had no visible injuries. “When we arrived on scene a bystander had the baby out of the car and was holding her. The driver (the mother) was pretty easy to extricate from the car however the passenger was fully trapped and took more time to extricate."

Lieutenant Norris said that the dashboard was pushed so far in it was on the passenger’s chest. “The airbag had deployed on the drivers side but not on the passenger side. We were fortunate that after the car struck the pole it bounced back about 18 inches giving us a little room to get in there with our cutting tools to take that car apart. While we were cutting him out we had a Medic from LifeCare in the back seat holding C-Spine on him and rendering care.”

With the extent and mechanism of injuries Metro LifeFlight was requested to land at the scene for the passenger. While Firefighters were removing Gabriel from the wreckage, LifeFlight was setting down on Route 57 just north of the intersection. Gabriel was then flown from the scene to MetroHealth with multiple fractures and abdominal injuries.

Debra Adkins was flown a short time later from EMH to Metro for fractures abdominal injuries. The baby was also flown with Adkins for possible abdominal injuries.

Lieutenant Norris said that from the time crews arrived on scene until the time the last victim was extricated was a total of 27 minutes, he attributes that to great teamwork. “The scene couldn’t have run better tonight. The teamwork between the Firefighters, Paramedics, Police and the LifeFlight Crew is exactly how you want scenes like this to run. There was a lot going on and every single person on that scene had a job to do and each person performed flawlessly.”

The Elyria Police are investigating the crash.

To see more photos: CLICK HERE