— from Marla Johns —
[metaslider id=49446]
At approximately 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 Orcas Island Fire and Rescue received a call to respond to a vehicle versus tree accident involving a San Juan County Sheriff’s Deputy just inside the Moran State Park entrance. A tree, measuring approximately 3 feet in diameter, fell during a local windstorm and landed on top on the deputy’s vehicle.
All on duty personnel, as well as multiple volunteers, responded to the scene. “When you hear a call go out and you know it is one of your own on the other end waiting for you to get there, it is an indescribable feeling,” says the on duty paramedic, Jeff Larsen. “We are all a brotherhood. We work with these guys on a daily basis and we are one family.”
First responders were immediately hindered by the tree which had crashed on the car blocking the roadway. Volunteer responders and even two off-duty San Juan Deputies responded with department and personal equipment to assist in tree removal to open the road for responders. Just prior to the arrival of personnel, the Deputy involved in the incident had been able to free himself from the vehicle and was being attended to by a second on-duty Deputy.
The Deputy involved in the incident was treated and released from the scene with only minor injury.
So grateful for their service and glad they all are safe.
Love a happy ending!
So glad he wasn’t injured seriously.
‘we are all a brotherhood.’ = now, that could use some gender-revising.
Oh, wait – you just did: ‘We are one family.’ Well-done!
Sure do appreciate you all.
It’s ironic that the tree that fell on my car (no wind involved) over twenty years ago was also in Moran State Park. Even today I was noticing trees leaning towards the road. What a lot of people don’t realize is the shallow root system some of the trees have, making them vulnerable to wind. The one that landed on my car was after a lot of rain soaking the roots. Fortunately I was uninjured as well, and my car was not damaged nearly as bad as the deputy’s car. If I recall correctly in the past there were covenants in the park about cutting down trees, but I don’t know if those still stand – no pun intended!
Drivers need to be aware that it isn’t always the wind that brings big limbs or trees down. Just like it doesn’t have to be stormy to cause a power outage. Though probably somewhat rare to have a tree actually land on a car, it does happen. My late husband had a 30 something patient in Seattle years ago who was killed when a tree fell on his car as he was driving in Renton. He left a wife and I believe two young children. I realize it’s impossible to cut down every tree that “might” pose a possible problem, but some are so obvious and so close to the road. In my case I saw the tree moving in a strange way when none of the others around it were moving at all. I only had seconds to realize it was coming toward my car and still couldn’t do anything to avoid it because there was a car in front of me and one right behind me.
Just be aware of the trees when you’re driving, especially in a wind storm like we had. It was probably several weeks or so that I would actually get a little anxious driving through the park all those years ago, and would try to avoid having to drive through when it was windy. Not an easy thing to do when you live out at Sea Acres and have no other way to get to Eastsound!