Man rescued after spending night trapped in crashed car
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SEATTLE -- Firefighters have rescued a 67-year-old man who spent the night trapped in a car after it crashed down a small ravine in the Lake City neighborhood of north Seattle.
Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said firefighters used ropes to stabilize the vehicle before cutting off the roof to reach the man inside.
The man, who is in his 60s, was conscious and talking with firefighters during the rescue in the 2600 block of NE 120th Street. The force of the impact actually pushed him underneath the dashboard.
Fire crews brought him out of the ditch on a backboard and put him in an ambulance. He was then taken to the hospital to be checked out. Officials said he was banged up and had a black eye.
The homeowner who found him says the man could have been misdirected.
"GPS has put peoples' directions right through here," said John Shearer. "So I came out here this morning and the gentleman had been there all night. I'm glad I found him; I'm glad we were in town."
The gravel road runs alongside the homeowner's property, and abruptly ends at a stretch of green space.
It was not clear what caused the crash, but Moore said it happened sometime Monday night and firefighters were not called until about 8:26 a.m. on Tuesday.
Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said firefighters used ropes to stabilize the vehicle before cutting off the roof to reach the man inside.
The man, who is in his 60s, was conscious and talking with firefighters during the rescue in the 2600 block of NE 120th Street. The force of the impact actually pushed him underneath the dashboard.
Fire crews brought him out of the ditch on a backboard and put him in an ambulance. He was then taken to the hospital to be checked out. Officials said he was banged up and had a black eye.
The homeowner who found him says the man could have been misdirected.
"GPS has put peoples' directions right through here," said John Shearer. "So I came out here this morning and the gentleman had been there all night. I'm glad I found him; I'm glad we were in town."
The gravel road runs alongside the homeowner's property, and abruptly ends at a stretch of green space.
It was not clear what caused the crash, but Moore said it happened sometime Monday night and firefighters were not called until about 8:26 a.m. on Tuesday.
I'm glad this man was found alive. It could have been much worse... like the man that was found dead in his van after at least a week.
sheesh if I hear a crash of a car in the night I go out and look around ... but GPS is not a seeing and believing tool... if the driver cannot use the tool as intended... yes it is a tool... they should not be driving! Glad he is ok but honestly I question this 67 year olds competence to drive especially after this... what if they had crashed through a house and killed a family?.... the gps made me do it?....
I have been misdirected too - I found areas where a road had been removed but the gps maps were still not updated with the change... but I didn't crash into the house or drive on the persons lawn when I discovered this because I was paying attention to the road and not the stupid gps screen.
Look at this place there are two houses right in between where this happened.. dam people you telling me you all slept through this... amazing!
GPS once put me in a park and ride instead of a hotel. If the guy was using GPS you figure he'd wonder why he was on a gravel road, although he must have been going pretty fast to crash through the fence such a short way from the intersection.
@chandler We have GPS issues all the time. We were in another state once looking for a hotel and it placed us at the edge of town. It appears each GPS maker has their fair share of issues. Our last GPS was a Garmin, we ended up throwing it out the window on a Chicago freeway because it kept routing us back to our previous destination which was in Canada and we wanted to go south to TX. Hard resets don't always work. Now we have issues with our Tom-Tom which is out of warranty of course.Â
I'm glad he's ok. I wonder what happened to make him do that.
A few houses in the area, I would think driving through the fence would make some noise...I'd say the crash was caused by the guy going straight instead of taking a left into his driveway?
rural Lake City
@Komo Dragon if Keith Urban lived up here and it happened in his yard, think of what that would be called.  Urban Rural Lake City.  Crazy, huh?