Crews work to free a driver from a pickup that went off eastbound state Highway 14 west of Camas on Saturday and ended up wedged in trees on a steep embankment. (Allen Wolk, Camas-Washougal Fire Department)
A driver crashed his pickup through a guardrail on state Highway 14 and had to be extricated from his pickup, which was turned on its side and wedged up against a tree.
The driver, who suffered moderate injuries, crashed off state Highway 14 eastbound, just west of the downtown Camas exit, Saturday afternoon.
The Camas-Washougal Fire Department and Vancouver Fire Department responded, extricating the driver from the vehicle in about an hour and 15 minutes, according to Camas-Washougal Fire Department Battalion Chief Allen Wolk.
The rescue effort led to a large traffic backup on eastbound Highway 14.
The car had ended up on its driver side and wedged up against a tree about halfway down a steep, forested embankment, Wolk said.
“It was in a very precarious position,” Wolk said.
The responders used stabilizing struts to keep the car from falling and wrapped chains around other trees to keep the car from turning over. They used a reciprocating saw and cutters to remove the roof and retrieve the driver. The driver’s name was not available Saturday.
While rescuing the driver, two Camas-Washougal Fire Department paramedics were overwhelmed by temperatures in the high 90s and were transported to a hospital for evaluation and treatment of possible heat exhaustion. Both paramedics are expected to recover.
“We had water with us,” Wolk said. “There was just no air movement down there and it was really hot.”
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