A cracked windshield stood between Richard Sisson and a plunge to his death. Atlanta firefighters described Sisson's rescue Wednesday night from a car suspended in the air seven floors above ground as one of the most daring in recent history.
A firefighter named Rodney Deese got to Sisson before the windshield could give way, saving the man who somehow drove a car off the seventh floor of a Buckhead parking deck and got caught like a moth in a spiderweb by steel cables that surround the deck. Wearing a harness, Deese rappelled by rope down to the teetering car, shattered the front passenger window with a baton and crawled inside. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid," said Deese, 29, a firefighter for 6 1/2 years who is on the department's search-and-rescue team. "But I was more afraid something was going to happen to the patient. I was afraid that the windshield was going to break out." Deese found Sisson, 36, unconscious and in a balled-up position against the car's front windshield, which was already spider-webbed with cracks and coming out of place. He doesn't remember how long it took him to strap a harness on Sisson or what Sisson looks like, only that he was bleeding from somewhere. "It's weird," Deese said. "Time went by really fast. The only thing I had on my mind was getting this guy out alive." Firefighters had secured the car in place with the help of tow trucks and a steel cable. Two other firefighters on ladders, Rae Papendick and Chris Block, tried to talk to Sisson, who wasn't responding but groaned or moved occasionally and had one arm hanging out a broken window, Atlanta fire Capt. Greg Shinkle said. The firefighters put a sling around that arm so that, if Sisson stirred and fell out of the car, his rescuers could pull him up. Deese said it was "tight and cramped" inside the Ford Taurus. He tried to talk to Sisson, too, but the man never spoke. At one point, though, Sisson extended his hand to the firefighter, allowing Deese to shift him into a better position for firefighters to pull him from the car. Deese and the victim were attached to the same rope, so after firefighters lifted Deese up, Sisson followed. Onlookers watching the dramatic rescue from below applauded and whistled. Sisson, of Mechanicsville, Va., was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment of a cut to his shoulder, according to a police report. He was charged with driving under the influence and damage to property. Deese and fellow firefighters got back to his fire station after 1 a.m. Thursday He had a hard time going to sleep because his adrenaline was still pumping. "Not only did I have that patient's life in my hands, but the guys I work with had my life in their hands. It works both ways," he said.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/12/13/danglingcar_1213.html News |
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