Crews Extricate One Hit by METRO Train

Rescue Squad crews worked with crews from both the District of Columbia and Montgomery County to remove a man from underneath a METRO train at the Friendship Heights station.

Rescue Squad 741, ALS 741 (the Squad’s ALS chase car), and Ambulances 741 Bravo and Delta were dispatched at 1605 hours, at the beginning of the afternoon rush hour, for a report of one struck by a train.  First arriving units found that a man had been struck and located him underneath the third car.

After assuring that METRO had shut down the third rail power, the Rescue Squad crew gained access to the patient by lowering themselves onto the track bed between two cars.  They immobilized the patient on a backboard and placed him onto a SKED underneath the platform overhang.  Other crews, including D.C. Truck 14, then pulled the patient to the end of the train, about 200 feet away.  The patient then was lifted to the platform and transferred to Ambulance 741 Bravo, whose crew was supplemented by medics from Silver Spring Medic 701 and ALS 741.  The medics assessed, initiated treatment, and transported the patient to the trauma center at Suburban Hospital.  The entire removal operation took less than 25 minutes.

In addition to the Rescue Squad, units from Bethesda, Glen Echo, and Silver Spring responded.  The District of Columbia was notified of the incident separately, and the D.C. units coordinated with the Montgomery County incident commander to support the operation, both on scene and at Metro’s command center.  Incident command was handled by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief 702.

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