Thursday, June 3, 2010

A tough commute


Drivers on Interstate 580 were greeted by a different type of motor vehicle sharing their roadway. An air ambulance was called to the eastbound lanes just east of the Patterson Pass exit after a car rolled off the roadway. The driver was alive but suffering seizures and needed to get to the hospital quickly.


The east bound lanes were closed and the helicopter touched down on the lane divider closing the freeway down. Traffic backed up for miles into Alameda County as the ambulance crews tried to ready their patient for the flight. The seizures he was still having was making for an unsafe transport by air. Crews worked to get him stable enough to fly.


After over 45 minutes he was loaded into the helicopter which took off, turning quickly to fly by the closed stretch of road. It was a little weird to stand in the middle of I-580 at the height of the commuter rush hour and not a car passing me by. And the really strange thing is that almost three hours later I was taking pictures of the same helicopter after it landed at the skate park to pick up another injured patient. A very different day on the roads of Tracy to be sure.

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