By Callum Ludwig
Emergency services had an eventful start to their week as they responded to an accident involving a truck in Seville East.
A truck travelling on Killara Road near Sunnyside Drive had managed to flip over, suspending the driver upside down.
Gruyere CFA Captain Jason Richardson was the officer-in-charge of the incident and said he was on the scene within about two minutes of the call being received and was able to confirm that one man was trapped.
“I quickly established that the vehicle was a liquid nitrogen transport vehicle, so that made the incident quite a dynamic job in terms of the considerations of the safety of crews and the patient,” he said.
“We had good luck in terms of the pressure vessel on the vehicle that had the liquid nitrogen in it hadn’t ruptured or impacted to cause a leak and we were monitoring the pressure of the pressure vessel whilst AV (Ambulance Victoria) arrived and police and all the other services, and then we commenced the stabilising of the vehicle so that we could start the extrication of the patient.”
A CFA spokesperson confirmed that six CFA units from Gruyere, Wandin and Seville responded to the incident on Killara Road at around 9.27am on Monday 6 May.
Mr Richardson said CFA crews are trained to conduct a fairly comprehensive size-up of any job to establish any safety risks.
“We do a 360 of everything including acknowledging entrapment risks to crews, risks to the patient and any risk to the public or the environment as well,” he said.
“Some of my considerations were the environmental impact of if the liquid nitrogen was to expel from the tank, though in saying as soon as liquid nitrogen gets atmosphere it turns into a vapour so the contents itself weren’t flammable but if the pressure vessel was to rupture it could have had severe consequences.”
Ambulance Victoria confirmed the extent of the driver’s injuries.
“One man in his 50s was transported by road ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with lower body injuries, in a serious condition,” an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said.
Mr Richardson said when emergency services had arrived, the vehicle was almost perfectly upside down.
“We had the company who operated the truck attend and then we sought advice from their technical support in terms of the contents of the vehicle and ensuring that that was made safe whilst we were conducting the rescue and then once we successfully extricated the male driver we moved on to the overhaul and recovery phase of the job which included heavy haulage to right the truck onto its wheels,” he said.
“One that sometimes does get forgotten is the important job that the public plays in these emergencies, the comprehensive information that you give to the Triple O operator is crucial,”
“I want to commend, there was a lot of public there when I arrived, and the important steps that they played in terms of not just the information they gave to the operator, but to the occupant as well.”
The incident was under control at 9.55am and deemed safe at 10.51am.
