Portsmouth Fire Department responded to a serious automobile accident on West Main Road, in the area of King Charles Drive, around 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Incident Command reported it as a head-on accident with two people trapped and requested two helicopters to the scene.
Portsmouth Police Departments confirmed that one car was traveling north and crossed over the yellow lines and hit another vehicle head-on. Before the collision, a third vehicle was also grazed.
Portsmouth Fire Department confirmed 5 patients were transported to 3 hospitals, the crash caused traffic to back up for hours.
UPDATES:
11:06 a.m. on Wednsday – Patch has identified the victims involved in the accident here – http://trib.al/FF8CLNb
10:30 a.m. on Wednesday – Portsmouth Fire Department released the following press release on Wednesday morning;
West Main Road accident press release:
At approximately 5:30 pm on August 30, 2016 Portsmouth Fire Department received a single 911 call reporting a serious car accident on West Main Road.
Firefighters arrived to find a three vehicle accident; head on collision with entrapment in two of the vehicles.
Portsmouth responded to the Scene with Rescue 1, Engine 1, and Engine 3.Captain Steve Lynch took command of the incident and declared a Level 1 mass casualty incident. A Level 1 MCI calls for 5 mutual aid ambulances to respond into Portsmouth. One of Portsmouth’s ambulance was out at Newport Hospital at the time of the crash, leaving only one Portsmouth Ambulance available. Chief Michael Cranson assumed command on his arrival.
Two medical helicopters were requested from Boston Medflight, but they were unavailable. Boston MedFlight summoned two helicopters from Lifestar out of Hartford.
Ambulances from Bristol, Middletown, Naval Station Newport, Newport, and Tiverton responded to the scene. An Engine from Tiverton responded to the landing zone to provide fire protection and assistance.
Portsmouth Firefighters extricated a total of 3 patients from two of the vehicles utilizing the hydraulic tools (aka jaws of life) The first patients were removed within 20 minutes of arrival.
2 adult males were transported to Rhode Island Hospital with life threatening injuries. 1 of the males was transported by helicopter.
2 teenage males went transported to Hasbro Children’s Hospital with life threatening injuries.
1 adult male was transported to Newport Hospital with apparent non-life threatening injuries.
1 female bystander was evaluated and treated at the scene, but refused transport.
The medical helicopter landed at Kings Grant Fellowship, approximately 500 yards from the scene. This location is one of 14 predesignated landing zones in Portsmouth. There are 3 more designated landing zones on Prudence Island.
Chief Michael Cranson would like to extend his gratitude to all of the mutual aid partners. He would also like to commend all of the firefighter / EMTs on their heroic efforts under very difficult conditions.