"Like a battlefield"

Driver trapped in accident wreck for an hour

The driver's cab was completely demolished.(Bild: Matthias Lauber/laumat.at)

It must have been a real horror for the driver of a van: for around an hour, the man was seriously injured and trapped in the completely demolished driver's cab of his van on the A25 near Marchtrenk (Upper Austria). The emergency doctor handed medication into the wreckage.

"It looked like a battlefield," reports head of operations Thomas Fraungruber from the Marchtrenk fire brigade about the scene that presented itself to his team on the Wels highway at around 12.30 p.m. on Wednesday. A van had collided with a truck shortly before the Marchtrenk West exit, presumably because it had overlooked the slowing traffic. The crash was so violent that the driver - a 22-year-old Romanian, as was later revealed - was trapped in his completely demolished driver's cab and spilled fuel.

Difficult rescue
"After we arrived, it took us 45 minutes to an hour to free the driver," says fire department commander Fraungruber. "We coordinated with the police and the ambulance service and created access to the patient by cutting away the driver's door. Then the emergency doctor administered medication."

It looked like a battlefield. After we arrived, it took us 45 minutes to an hour to free the driver.

Einsatzleiter Thomas Fraungruber, FF Marchtrenk

Highway closed for two hours
Fraungruber and his comrades finally succeeded in forcing the driver's cab open with cylinders to such an extent that the seriously injured 22-year-old could be freed from the wreckage and taken to hospital.

After the serious accident, the A25 in the direction of the Wels junction was closed for two hours.