We were sat on cover at the hospital. We had had coffee and I was considering toast when control decided I didnt need any and gave us a job.
"RTC. One male. Rollover. Possible entrapment" and then the address.
The road was litterally 30 seconds away from where we were and was a quiet residential street. So a rollover was unlikely. But I've been wrong before
And was again.
We got there and found. Chaos.
A car on its roof. Glass, oil, rubber all over the road.
We could see a pair of legs sticking through on of the broken doors. They were wiggling about so obviously whoever was in there was still alive.
I got on my knees to have a look.
Inside the car was an old chap hanging from his seat belt
There was an odd whistling noise coming from somewhere.
"You all right mate?" I said. No answer so I shouted it. He fiddled with his ear and the whistling stopped.
Ah. Hearing aid.
"Yes fine. I can't get out" he said. The drivers seat was blocking his way.
"Whats your name"
"Ted" We'll call him Ted
"Ok Ted. We'll get you out"
My crewmate had got the boot open and it provided a perfect escape route.
Ted didnt want to go out of the boot. He wanted to go out of the door an no amount of cajoling from us would change his mind.
At that point the cavalry, in the shape of the fire brigade turned up. We unleashed them and they made short work of the seat. Ted was free.
He had no pain and no injuries and his speed was quite slow so we were happy to walk him to the ambulance.
We gave him a quick MOT while the police cordonned off the area and the fire brigade made PR announcements.
My crewmate did his blood pressure and I could tell from her expression that something wasn't quite right.
Teds blood pressure was sky high. (260/86 if you're interested). It turns out it was usually very high because he was a diallysis patient but we weren't happy to just let him go home. We took him to casualty so they could keep an eye on him
So, what had happened? It was a combination of partially defrosted windscreen, dark road, another parked car and angles
And luck of course