It's always a shock to the system when my little vibrating sidekick springs into life in the wee small hours… And at precisely 0333 this morning my heart rate shot through the roof as I tumbled out of bed in response to my alerter giving it the big 'un.
Bleary-eyed I jogged over to the fire station and, being first in, took the drivers slot and grabbed the tip sheet to see where and what we were off to.
With sleep still clearing I registered that we had a single vehicle RTC on Denmark Road, near the railway station and barely a mile away and that the car was on its roof with persons trapped. That certainly focusses the mind!
This was my first shout in our new pump as driver – not the time of day I'd have chosen to operate this state-of-the-art piece of kit. Daytime and me more fully awake would have been much better! Beggars, choosers and all that…
Out of the station and away and my chance to experience the acceleration of these new pumps – it's impressive! We heard the watch book in attendance and we were there just minutes later.
The car was actually on its wheels and sitting just inside the railway station car park. It had collided heavily with a lamppost on its nearside and then completely wiped out a section of sturdy metal railings before coming to rest. The section of dislodged railings ended up about 20 metres away from the car which together with the precarious position of the lamppost, suggested the car had been travelling at slightly (!*?) above the 30mph speed limit.
There was just the driver to deal with and paramedics were already taking care of him. Luckily there was no front seat passenger. If there had of been they would have taken the full impact of where the nearside door impacted with the lamppost…
All three fire crews got to work stabilising the car, setting up lighting, cutting gear and all the other bits of kit needed to extricate the casualty. Glass was managed, the drivers door was opened out to create an exit if needed in a hurry and then the roof was cut off. Long board in and the driver was out and on his way to hospital.
Job done. Time to pack away all the equipment and head off home. Too late to crawl back into bed. Instead it's a cuppa and a Digestive to dunk…