2 injured in motorcycle accident, flown via helicopter to Phoenix hospitals
SUV passes under helicopter after it lands; Prescott Fire urges safety
Updated as of Monday, May 27, 2019 8:19 PM
EDITOR'S NOTE: For an update on this story, click here.
Firefighters for the Prescott Fire Department were returning to quarters after a call Sunday afternoon when they happened to stumble upon a motorcycle accident that saw two people flown to Phoenix hospitals via helicopter with severe injuries.
Engine 72 was returning to base at around 5 p.m. Sunday traveling northbound near Overland Road and the Highway 89 and 69 interchange in Prescott when the crew noticed two people lying in the road immediately following a motorcycle accident. With other vehicles stopping at the scene, the engine’s captain immediate radioed for additional engines, ambulances and a battalion chief to assist, according to a Prescott Fire press release.
A rapid trauma assessment was conducted on two unresponsive individuals, one male, one female, estimated in their 50s, with multiple systems trauma, including head injuries.
Neither rider had been wearing a helmet, according to Prescott Fire.
The captain alerted dispatch that his crew would be in need of two helicopters, which airlifted the two patients to Phoenix area trauma centers at Deer Valley and John C. Lincoln hospitals.
Neither patient was identified by Prescott Fire and their medical status was unknown as of Monday evening.
UNSAFE DRIVER
With the highway blocked for nearly an hour during the incident and Overland Road closed for a longer period of time so police could conduct their investigation, Prescott Fire spokesperson E. Conrad Jackson said scene safety was a major issue.
“Despite police officers’ cars and fire engines blocking lanes of traffic, a blue SUV with a male driver proceeded around them and through the scene, passing under the spinning rotors of a helicopter that had just landed,” Jackson said in a release. “First responders cannot emphasize enough the gravity of such an incursion into the scene.”
Jackson said more than a dozen first responders were working the scene at the time when the driver carelessly drove through.
“This is the second accident this year in Prescott where a driver has failed to yield to the blockades created by emergency vehicles and entered the scene as a helicopter was landing,” Jackson said.
It is unknown if Prescott Police caught up with the driver. Watch The Daily Courier and dCourier.com for more.
Brian M. Bergner Jr. is news/sports editor for The Daily Courier of Prescott News Network. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and SoundCloud at @TheEditorDesk. Email bbergner@prescottaz.com or call 928-445-3333, ext. 1106.
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