Tipover Accident Traps Woman with Minor Injury

Busy morning traffic was rerouted in two directions Friday at North Mayfair Road and West North Avenue after a two-vehicle collision that left a woman trapped in her tipped SUV.

Firefighters were able to extract the woman within about 15 to 20 minutes after the 8:29 a.m. accident.

The woman, whom police and fire officials have not yet identified, was able to walk to a stretcher on her own but was taken to the hospital. Lt. Gerald Witkowski said the woman suffered a minor injury to her arm.

The SUV remained on its side in the middle of the southbound lanes of Mayfair Road, while the sedan that struck it, with major front-end damage, sat in the eastbound lanes of North Avenue.

Traffic in both those directions was rerouted.

A witness told police it appeared that one vehicle had run a red light, Witkowski said, although it wasn't entirely clear which one. Witkowski said that an accident report had not yet been completed.

From the positions of the vehicles it appeared that the sedan was eastbound on North and struck the southbound SUV in the side, knocking it over and trapping the driver.

Firefighters stabilized the SUV with four metal bars to keep it from shifting and then broke out the back window. Paramedics crawled forward, checked the woman's condition, and then helped her out the back.

Witkowski said he thought that traffic was stopped on the two thoroughfares for about an hour during the extraction and the removal of the crippled vehicles.