| Ambulance personnel couldn't convince ejected rollover driver to get help |
By: Darrell Todd Maurina
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St. Robert firefighter Ralph Alkire discusses removal of a wreck with Jack's Towing personnel.
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SAINT ROBERT, Mo. (Dec. 8, 2009) — The victim of a rollover wreck in St. Robert is lucky to be alive, according to Pulaski County Ambulance Director Gary Carmack.
State troopers reported that Aaron D. Bottoms, 27, of Bentonville, Ark., had not been wearing his seat belt when his eastbound 2001 Toyota pickup overturned at 2:43 p.m. Tuesday about a half-mile from Exit 161. Bottoms was ejected from his pickup but suffered only minor injuries and paramedics said he refused medical treatment.
Rollover wrecks almost always injure unbelted passengers, and Carmack said injuries following an ejection are usually serious and often fatal.
“He was ejected, and he was ejected at a high rate of speed, about 70 mph, we think,” Carmack said. “Our paramedics on the scene thought he should go to the hospital, but he did not want to go to the hospital … since he was conscious, alert, and able to communicate, we could not make him go.”
Bottoms’ injuries were classified as minor by state troopers, but Carmack said even if injuries initially appear minor they can be much worse than they appear. Carmack said Bottoms checked himself into an area hotel; a paramedic supervisor, after strongly urging Bottoms to reconsider his refusal to seek medical treatment, advised him of potentially serious symptoms of hidden injuries and asked him to contact medical personnel if he began to show indications of medical problems at the hotel or after returning home.
St. Robert police and firefighters joined Pulaski County Ambulance District personnel and state troopers in responding to the rollover wreck in the westbound lanes in front of Wal-Mart, and found the pickup truck overturned in the median and balanced on the cables between the traffic lanes.
The black Toyota Tacoma pickup fared much less well than its driver; troopers reported that the pickup was totaled and removed by Jack’s Towing. According to state patrol reports, the crash happened when Bottoms looked down at his cell phone, ran off the right side of the road, struck a guardrail, and overturned, ejecting him from the vehicle.
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