Hit and Run
Chapter 7
Once they knew that the injured were being taken care of, Sully and Ty started looking among the wounded to see if they could determine if their hit and run driver was among them. From the looks of the inside of the overturned car, the driver was injured - possibly severely. There was blood all over the driver's side door and steering wheel.
The other arriving medics and police officers were handling traffic and the injured from the other side of the accident scene. As Ty made his way through the injured and the curious, he turned to see Alex working on another officer. He saw Doc working on a third officer - both unconscious. He called over to his partner, "Sul! Sully! Over here!"
Sully turned to see where Ty was and by the look on his face he knew that it was urgent. "Maybe he found this bastard," thought Sully angrily as he glanced at the yellow emergency blanket covering the dead fellow officer on his way toward Davis.
"Whatta ya got?" asked Sully as he walked up to Davis and realized what he was staring at. It was the two other officers that had been on the scene of the original accident.
"Oh my God," he said, under his breath. "How bad are they Doc?" he asked.
Doc just shook his head as he gathered another IV and IV setup out of the trauma bag. "Not good," he said simply, never taking his eyes off his patient as he worked quickly.
"Shit," Davis said as he turned away, looking again through the crowds to see if he could somehow figure out which one was the psycho doing this.
Lieutenant Swersky came up behind Sully and Davis and looked down at the two officers from his shift now fighting for their lives. "Better start calling the families over to Mercy," he said to himself, always dreading this task. He turned to Sgt. Christopher and motioned for him to head back to their vehicle so they could return to the station and start making phone calls and arrangements for other officers to pick up the families and escort them to Mercy. This was a task that every officer dreaded, knowing that as soon as the family member saw an officer other than their own standing at their door, they knew tragedy had struck their lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They had loaded the two officers into the same ambulance. Alex was working on one and Doc the other. One of the FDNY guys was driving the ambulance. Luckily, out of all the injured, the only serious injuries were those of the three officers. All the others would have their cuts and minor fractures taken care of and be released home that same night. Hopefully, the two surviving officers would be able to go home also.
Doc was giving the information of his patient to the hospital and Alex was getting another set of vitals on her patient to prepare for her report when Doc was finished.
"Mercy, Boy55-3 is in route to your location with two patients; victims struck by a vehicle. Patient Number 1 is unconscious. According to witnesses on the scene, both victims were hit by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. Vital signs are: BP 90 over 60; pulse rapid and thready; respirations 24. Patient has obvious compound fracture of the left femur and left humerus. Multiple lacerations and bruising with considerable blood loss. Probable internal injuries. We have two large-bore IVs running wide open for fluid replacement and oxygen via a non-rebreather mask at 12 liters per minute. Patient is immobilized on a backboard with cervical collar. Traction splint has been applied to left femur. Left arm is also splinted. Stand by for Patient Number 2," Doc finished as he handed the radio over to Alex.
"Mercy, Patient Number 2 is also unconscious. Vital signs are: BP 90 over 80; pulse rapid and thready, respirations 20. Patient has obvious fractures of the right arm and dislocation of the right knee and ankle. Patient 2 also has a laceration to the right side of the head, above the ear with a hematoma. We have two large bore IVs running wide open. We have the patient immobilized on a backboard with cervical collar. Right arm and leg have been immobilized and patient was put on oxygen at 12 liters per minute via non-rebreather mask. Our ETA is approximately 5 minutes Mercy."
"Boy 55-3 we received your transmission and are standing by," came the reply from the telemetry radio at Mercy.
"10-4 Mercy. Also, be advised that these two patients are police officers so you should be getting quite a crowd. Also, Boy 55-3 is transporting one DOA to your location," advised Doc.
"Received 55-3. We already have quite a crowd," Mercy responded. News traveled fast.
After a few minutes, Boy 55-3 pulled into the emergency entrance of Mercy and maneuvered through the police cars and the cars of the politicians that inevitably show up to 'offer' their support.
The crowd parted to let the medics through with their precious cargo, each trying to get a glimpse of just how bad the officers were injured.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back at the scene, Sully and Davis were trying to help the crime scene technicians reconstruct what happened with the help of the witnesses.
"Sir, tell me exactly what you saw once the ambulance left the scene with the driver from that car," asked Sully as he gestured toward the car from the original accident.
"Well, the ambulance left and people started to leave, you know, cause all the excitement was over. The fire department was cleaning up their stuff and the cops were still directing traffic. I guess they were waiting for the tow truck to get here," said the man. Sully nodded that he was following him and the man continued.
"Well, the cop that was standing over there," said the man, gesturing toward the south side of the accident scene. "He called over to the other two that were standing at this end - I don't know what he said, but the younger cop walked over to him. Then the older one walked over to here," said the man, gesturing toward the north side of the scene, "and was talking to the lady cop for a minute. Then he walked over to that corner there and was talking to one of the firemen. I didn't see too much after that cause I had to get to work," finished the man.
Sully nodded, "Thanks Sir. You've been a big help. I've got your name and phone number in case we have any more questions for you."
"Yes sir, Officer. I'm sorry about, well you know," said the man, referring to the dead police officer. "Thanks," replied Sully.
Ty was talking to a woman on the other side of the road. The woman was talking quickly and Ty could tell that she was still quite upset at what she'd seen. "Ma'am. I need you to try and calm down and tell me exactly what you saw."
The woman took a deep breath and continued, "Well, I was starting to turn around to walk back to my building when I heard the announcement come over both the police car radios and the firetruck radio. You know, about the car that was coming." Ty nodded his understanding and urged the woman to continue.
"The firemen, they just dropped their equipment where it was and got out of the way. But, some didn't get out of the way soon enough," she said, remembering a couple of the men that got hit when the car came careening around the corner. "Some of them were helping the three police officers to get the people out of the way and back so they didn't get hit. That poor officer - the one that got killed - that poor officer didn't have a chance. The car came around the corner so fast and never slowed down," she said shaking her head sadly. "I heard that terrible sound as the car hit the officer and threw the officer up into the air. I could tell the way the officer landed that - well - that no one could live through that," she finished, her eyes filling with tears again.
Sully was talking to another witness, "After the first officer got hit, the car was aiming for the other officer that was still in the road. The third officer saw what was happening and ran over to knock the other one out of the way. They both got hit - hit hard," said the witness, shaking her head. "Are they gonna be okay?" she asked Sully.
Sully just looked at her solemnly, "We hope so. Thanks for your help." Sully turned back toward Davis and the two officers walked over to the crime scene technicians to give them the information that they had gathered. "Anything come back from running the license plate of the hit and run car?" asked Sully.
The technician shook his head. "The plate was a phony. We ran it anyway, but it came back as not existing. It looked real enough from a distance though. We're running the VIN numbers of the car off the dashboard. Hopefully we'll get some information from that. I'll keep you guys posted. You heading over to the hospital?"
"Yeah, we're going over now," Sully said as he shook hands with the technician and he and Davis turned to head over to the hospital. "We've been doing this too often," said Sully sadly and Ty just nodded his head, not knowing what more to say as they walked over to their RMP.
They took one last look at the scene as they got into their car and drove away. Each rode I silence to Mercy hoping for the best for the injured officers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC....
Chapter 7
Once they knew that the injured were being taken care of, Sully and Ty started looking among the wounded to see if they could determine if their hit and run driver was among them. From the looks of the inside of the overturned car, the driver was injured - possibly severely. There was blood all over the driver's side door and steering wheel.
The other arriving medics and police officers were handling traffic and the injured from the other side of the accident scene. As Ty made his way through the injured and the curious, he turned to see Alex working on another officer. He saw Doc working on a third officer - both unconscious. He called over to his partner, "Sul! Sully! Over here!"
Sully turned to see where Ty was and by the look on his face he knew that it was urgent. "Maybe he found this bastard," thought Sully angrily as he glanced at the yellow emergency blanket covering the dead fellow officer on his way toward Davis.
"Whatta ya got?" asked Sully as he walked up to Davis and realized what he was staring at. It was the two other officers that had been on the scene of the original accident.
"Oh my God," he said, under his breath. "How bad are they Doc?" he asked.
Doc just shook his head as he gathered another IV and IV setup out of the trauma bag. "Not good," he said simply, never taking his eyes off his patient as he worked quickly.
"Shit," Davis said as he turned away, looking again through the crowds to see if he could somehow figure out which one was the psycho doing this.
Lieutenant Swersky came up behind Sully and Davis and looked down at the two officers from his shift now fighting for their lives. "Better start calling the families over to Mercy," he said to himself, always dreading this task. He turned to Sgt. Christopher and motioned for him to head back to their vehicle so they could return to the station and start making phone calls and arrangements for other officers to pick up the families and escort them to Mercy. This was a task that every officer dreaded, knowing that as soon as the family member saw an officer other than their own standing at their door, they knew tragedy had struck their lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They had loaded the two officers into the same ambulance. Alex was working on one and Doc the other. One of the FDNY guys was driving the ambulance. Luckily, out of all the injured, the only serious injuries were those of the three officers. All the others would have their cuts and minor fractures taken care of and be released home that same night. Hopefully, the two surviving officers would be able to go home also.
Doc was giving the information of his patient to the hospital and Alex was getting another set of vitals on her patient to prepare for her report when Doc was finished.
"Mercy, Boy55-3 is in route to your location with two patients; victims struck by a vehicle. Patient Number 1 is unconscious. According to witnesses on the scene, both victims were hit by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. Vital signs are: BP 90 over 60; pulse rapid and thready; respirations 24. Patient has obvious compound fracture of the left femur and left humerus. Multiple lacerations and bruising with considerable blood loss. Probable internal injuries. We have two large-bore IVs running wide open for fluid replacement and oxygen via a non-rebreather mask at 12 liters per minute. Patient is immobilized on a backboard with cervical collar. Traction splint has been applied to left femur. Left arm is also splinted. Stand by for Patient Number 2," Doc finished as he handed the radio over to Alex.
"Mercy, Patient Number 2 is also unconscious. Vital signs are: BP 90 over 80; pulse rapid and thready, respirations 20. Patient has obvious fractures of the right arm and dislocation of the right knee and ankle. Patient 2 also has a laceration to the right side of the head, above the ear with a hematoma. We have two large bore IVs running wide open. We have the patient immobilized on a backboard with cervical collar. Right arm and leg have been immobilized and patient was put on oxygen at 12 liters per minute via non-rebreather mask. Our ETA is approximately 5 minutes Mercy."
"Boy 55-3 we received your transmission and are standing by," came the reply from the telemetry radio at Mercy.
"10-4 Mercy. Also, be advised that these two patients are police officers so you should be getting quite a crowd. Also, Boy 55-3 is transporting one DOA to your location," advised Doc.
"Received 55-3. We already have quite a crowd," Mercy responded. News traveled fast.
After a few minutes, Boy 55-3 pulled into the emergency entrance of Mercy and maneuvered through the police cars and the cars of the politicians that inevitably show up to 'offer' their support.
The crowd parted to let the medics through with their precious cargo, each trying to get a glimpse of just how bad the officers were injured.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back at the scene, Sully and Davis were trying to help the crime scene technicians reconstruct what happened with the help of the witnesses.
"Sir, tell me exactly what you saw once the ambulance left the scene with the driver from that car," asked Sully as he gestured toward the car from the original accident.
"Well, the ambulance left and people started to leave, you know, cause all the excitement was over. The fire department was cleaning up their stuff and the cops were still directing traffic. I guess they were waiting for the tow truck to get here," said the man. Sully nodded that he was following him and the man continued.
"Well, the cop that was standing over there," said the man, gesturing toward the south side of the accident scene. "He called over to the other two that were standing at this end - I don't know what he said, but the younger cop walked over to him. Then the older one walked over to here," said the man, gesturing toward the north side of the scene, "and was talking to the lady cop for a minute. Then he walked over to that corner there and was talking to one of the firemen. I didn't see too much after that cause I had to get to work," finished the man.
Sully nodded, "Thanks Sir. You've been a big help. I've got your name and phone number in case we have any more questions for you."
"Yes sir, Officer. I'm sorry about, well you know," said the man, referring to the dead police officer. "Thanks," replied Sully.
Ty was talking to a woman on the other side of the road. The woman was talking quickly and Ty could tell that she was still quite upset at what she'd seen. "Ma'am. I need you to try and calm down and tell me exactly what you saw."
The woman took a deep breath and continued, "Well, I was starting to turn around to walk back to my building when I heard the announcement come over both the police car radios and the firetruck radio. You know, about the car that was coming." Ty nodded his understanding and urged the woman to continue.
"The firemen, they just dropped their equipment where it was and got out of the way. But, some didn't get out of the way soon enough," she said, remembering a couple of the men that got hit when the car came careening around the corner. "Some of them were helping the three police officers to get the people out of the way and back so they didn't get hit. That poor officer - the one that got killed - that poor officer didn't have a chance. The car came around the corner so fast and never slowed down," she said shaking her head sadly. "I heard that terrible sound as the car hit the officer and threw the officer up into the air. I could tell the way the officer landed that - well - that no one could live through that," she finished, her eyes filling with tears again.
Sully was talking to another witness, "After the first officer got hit, the car was aiming for the other officer that was still in the road. The third officer saw what was happening and ran over to knock the other one out of the way. They both got hit - hit hard," said the witness, shaking her head. "Are they gonna be okay?" she asked Sully.
Sully just looked at her solemnly, "We hope so. Thanks for your help." Sully turned back toward Davis and the two officers walked over to the crime scene technicians to give them the information that they had gathered. "Anything come back from running the license plate of the hit and run car?" asked Sully.
The technician shook his head. "The plate was a phony. We ran it anyway, but it came back as not existing. It looked real enough from a distance though. We're running the VIN numbers of the car off the dashboard. Hopefully we'll get some information from that. I'll keep you guys posted. You heading over to the hospital?"
"Yeah, we're going over now," Sully said as he shook hands with the technician and he and Davis turned to head over to the hospital. "We've been doing this too often," said Sully sadly and Ty just nodded his head, not knowing what more to say as they walked over to their RMP.
They took one last look at the scene as they got into their car and drove away. Each rode I silence to Mercy hoping for the best for the injured officers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC....