By BRIEANN RICH
Wintergreen News

A single vehicle accident sent one man to the hospital via Mercy Flight on the day before his 35th birthday.

The Medina Fire Department Ambulance and East Shelby Fire Department responded to a reported single vehicle accident in front of 5410 East Shelby Road in the Town of Shelby NY at 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, 2009.

Assistant Chief Rusty Hoffmeister, of the East Shelby Fire Department, arrived on scene first to find a Chevrolet Malibu crash head-on into a tree with the remnants of a power pole sticking out of the rear window. Hoffmeister assumed incident command and immediately called for Mercy Flight and began arranging the landing zone.

Captain R.J. Morgan and Firefighter/Medics Matt Jackson and Nicholas Rich, of the Medina Fire Department, arrived on scene and immediately began treating 34 year old Roger Caldwell, of Albion NY, while he was being extricated from the mangled vehicle.

Caldwell, who had fallen asleep at the wheel, had drifted off the road shearing off a power pole and crashing into a large tree. The power pole, swinging from the power lines, then swung into the car through the rear window stopping just short of the driver’s seat.

Caldwell was transported by Medina Fire Department Ambulance to the landing zone, near the East Shelby Fire Station, where the patient was transferred to Mercy Flight and flown to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester NY.

National Grid was called to secure the power pole and power lines while Caldwell was extricated.

Lyons Collision of Medina NY towed the totaled vehicle from the scene. The Orleans County Sheriffs were on scene to investigate the accident.

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10/17/09 - 5410 East Shelby Rd

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10/17/09 - 5410 East Shelby Rd

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10/17/09 - 5410 East Shelby Rd

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10/17/09 - 5410 East Shelby Rd

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10/17/09 - 5410 East Shelby Rd

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10/17/09 - 5410 East Shelby Rd