Police: Car Goes Over Ledge, Woman Trapped For Hours
By: Vanessa Herring
Updated: December 5, 2012
Police say 71 year old Delores Kohler was driving East on Ridgeway Avenue around 5 a.m. Tuesday, when her car left the road, went underneath a fence, and fell 30 feet down an embankment, "it landed on pavement, so, pretty much nose first and then flipped over on the roof," explained Captain Patrick Phelan of the Greece Police Department. The car landed on Kodak Park Avenue, a private road with litte traffic, "she landed in a place where nobody noticed her or saw her," explained Captain Phelan.
Pinned inside her Chevy Malibu, Kohler went unnoticed for five hours. Contractors heading into work found her and called for help. Firefighter Mark Quill of the Ridge Road Fire District was among the first on scene, "I'm thinking okay this is five hours and she was talking right along," explained Quill, "saying please get me out of the car."
Although she suffered injuries to her face, head, arm, she was awake and alert when first responders arrived. Thanks to the warm temperatures Kohler's condition didn't deteriorate during the five hours she was trapped, "if it was a normal early week in December with the cold weather we'd have more of a concern because she might have an altered mental status," explained Quill. Lieutenant Steve Johnson of the Ridge Road Fire District added, "she's pretty lucky, if she was there for five hours, and the weather was nice considering it's the first week into December."
The firefighters spend countless hours training for the worst and say they've never seen anything like Tuesday morning's accident, "this was one of those one of a kind accidents that you'll remember for quite some time especially because of the outcome where conscious and alert patient, talking to us, talking to the ambulance folks on the way to the hospital," explained Ridge Road Fire District Battalion Chief Bill Timmons.
Pinned inside her Chevy Malibu, Kohler went unnoticed for five hours. Contractors heading into work found her and called for help. Firefighter Mark Quill of the Ridge Road Fire District was among the first on scene, "I'm thinking okay this is five hours and she was talking right along," explained Quill, "saying please get me out of the car."
Although she suffered injuries to her face, head, arm, she was awake and alert when first responders arrived. Thanks to the warm temperatures Kohler's condition didn't deteriorate during the five hours she was trapped, "if it was a normal early week in December with the cold weather we'd have more of a concern because she might have an altered mental status," explained Quill. Lieutenant Steve Johnson of the Ridge Road Fire District added, "she's pretty lucky, if she was there for five hours, and the weather was nice considering it's the first week into December."
The firefighters spend countless hours training for the worst and say they've never seen anything like Tuesday morning's accident, "this was one of those one of a kind accidents that you'll remember for quite some time especially because of the outcome where conscious and alert patient, talking to us, talking to the ambulance folks on the way to the hospital," explained Ridge Road Fire District Battalion Chief Bill Timmons.
