Crews rescue elderly man who crashed into canyon off the Wilson River Highway

On Wednesday August 17th we were called to a car crash on the Wilson River Highway near the summit. When we got there we found that an elderly man had went off the roadway rolling his car down an embankment approximately 150 feet into a steep canyon. He was badly trapped in the car and our crews worked for over an hour to cut the car away from him. He then had to be gen...tly hauled out of the canyon using a rope and pulley system. In this photo Lieutenant Karen Nordstrom, as well as Firefighters Keith Baas and Geoff McFarland, and Intern Gabe Welp are bringing the injured man out of the canyon.




We were assisted by Banks Fire District and the Tillamook Fire Department on this call. The injured man was then transported by Lifeflight to the trauma center at Legacy Emmanuel in Portland with what we would consider serious injuries. This call was interesting in that a driver of another car saw dirt flying in their rear view mirror so they turned around to check and see what had happened. When they got there they saw where he had left the roadway and crashed down through a heavily timbered canyon on the north side of the highway. He ended up on his wheels but was unable to get out of the car, had the car in front not thought to check on the dust or had not seen him crash all together this could have had a much more tragic ending as he was not visible from the roadway.