Early Monday morning, a severe accident on I-5 North near Kelso resulted in four individuals being extricated from an overturned vehicle and airlifted to the hospital. Rescue operations commenced after the alarm was sounded at around 2:45 a.m. just beyond mile marker 42. The wreckage, presenting a startling scene, was found with one occupant having been ejected from the car, now trapped upside down in the trees, KOIN reported.
Intense coordinated search efforts were soon underway as Cowlitz County sheriff's deputy discovered tracks veering off the interstate near mile marker 43. The search led to a steep embankment where the car had astonishingly rolled 60 feet down a 40-foot slope. Given the rough terrain littered with tall brush and downed trees, response teams employed innovative methods, utilizing a ladder extended with a rope to carefully lower a rescue basket down the slope to retrieve the victims, as described by KGW.
Each of the four individuals, beset by significant trauma, was hauled up individually to the interstate, where emergency services awaited to quickly transport them to safety. Lifeflight helicopters were summoned to the scene to expedite the move to hospital care for the gravely injured. Remarkably, the prognosis indicates all are expected to survive the harrowing ordeal, albeit with various degrees of injury, including spinal fractures, according to KPTV.
As of the latest reports, two of the crash victims were taken by ambulance, with the remaining two needing to be airlifted due to the severity of their injuries. The emergency response demonstrated a swift and collaborative effort by multiple agencies to rescue and safely transport these individuals amid challenging circumstances. All four are now receiving care at the hospital for injuries sustained in the dramatic early morning plunge off Interstate 5.
