At 0047 on Friday, March 9, Southold Fire Department was dispatched for a single vehicle MVA on Route 48, Peconic, west of the BP gas station. Responding units discovered a vehicle being driven by a young woman in an easterly direction had departed from the paved surface and lodged in a copse of trees. The driver protected by air bag deployment was conscious, but severely entangled in the crushed vehicle and required a lengthy extrication. Members of the Southold Fire Department, using.power and hand tools at their disposal, carefully peeled the vehicle away from the driver so that she could be carried to a SFD ambulance for further treatment prior to her transfer to a Suffolk County Police Department helicopter for transport to Stony Brook University Hospital Level One Trauma Center for definitive care. The entire rescue operation was carried out under the direction of Chiefs Rich and Goldsmith.
(Photographs by Chief Goldsmith)