EAST RIDGE, TN - Thursday, June 22,2006 - 10:30 pm - City Of East Ridge Fire Department, Memorial EMS, and City Of East Ridge Police were dispatched to an accident with multiple injuries and entrapment on I-75 Northbound at the 1 Mile Marker.
When the first East Ridge Police Officer arrived on the scene, he reported a young boy, that had been ejected during a roll over, was trapped under an over turned SUV.
Two Samaritans at the scene quickly lifted the SUV up while other Samaritans pulled the boy from under the wreckage. Within seconds the first emergency crew arrived on the scene, they immediately started CPR on the young boy.
Additional rescuers arrived and assisted with the other four patients that were still in the SUV.
East Ridge Firefighters and paramedics with Memorial EMS feverishly continued aggressive Trauma CPR on the young boy while transporting him to T. C. Thompson's Children's Hospital. Unfortunately the young boy died of his massive injuries at the hospital.
The other four patients, a mother, father, a teenage daughter, and a twenty year old son, were all packaged and loaded into ambulances an transported to Erlanger Medical Center by Memorial EMS. Their injuries ranged from serious to critical, but none of their injuries were believed to be life threatening.
The Northbound SUV was said to have swerved to avoid a vehicle in front of them with no tail lights. When the SUV swerved, it quickly went out of control striking the center wall and then rolling over.
The young boy was ejected during the roll over. The SUV came to rest on it's top with the young boy underneath of the vehicle. Several Good Samaritans and witnesses immediately stopped and tried to help. Several of the witnesses also called 9-1-1.
The family was said to have been traveling on vacation from Southern, Georgia to Missouri.
I-75 Northbound was shut down to all traffic for several hours while traffic investigators with the East Ridge Police Department tried to piece the wreckage together and determine a cause.
The names of the victims has not yet been released.
