By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
EMERGENCY services faced a difficult situation in East Warburton on Friday afternoon when a car hit a tree. The grey Mitsubishi wagon was heading east on the Warburton Highway when it left the road sideways and careened into a tree.
Upper Yarra SES and Wandin CFA were called to the scene of the accident at 3pm on Friday 7 August.
A male driver in his fifties and a female passenger in her late forties were trapped in their vehicle after the car crashed into the tree on the driver’s side.
“It was quite a bad accident,” said Upper Yarra SES volunteer Russell Wulf.
“It was a really difficult job to get the people out. They hit the tree right on the driver’s side and hit it very hard,” he said.
Emergency services were able to free the female passenger of the car within roughly 10 minutes but the male driver remained trapped in the vehicle for over an hour.
“One of the biggest problems we faced was he kept losing consciousness,” Mr Wulf said.
“We ended up having to winch the car off the tree to get to the driver because it was so caved in and we had to remove the roof of the car.”
The driver was taken to The Alfred hospital and has been placed in the intensive care unit in a critical but stable condition.
The female passenger was taken to Maroondah hospital but released Saturday morning with minor injuries.
Upper Yarra SES said locals at the scene of the accident, Angela Gadsby and Samantha Sengleman, did an amazing job responding to the incident.
“Witnesses to the accident tuned off the car and managed to get access to the vehicle,” Mr Wulf said.
“She held the driver’s head up so he could breathe; they both did an incredible job.”
Any witnesses of the accident are urged to contact Yarra Junction police with information on 5967 1104.
