5 Vehicle Crash Snarled SR 836 Commute For Hours
MIAMI (CBS4) – A chaotic scene on State Road 836 during the Tuesday morning commute, drivers ran to the aid of those injured in a chain reaction crash which left one woman dead and nearly a dozen others injured.
The accident happened in the westbound lanes of the highway near NW 57th Avenue/Red Road around 7 a.m.
"When I came up there was a lot of screaming and yelling," said Elizabeth Zike who rushed to the aid of the injured.
The Florida Highway Patrol said five vehicles were involved in the crash. FHP spokesperson Alex Annunziato said it appears that the driver of a red mini-van lost control and hit a guard rail at NW 57th Avenue, on impact the vehicle veered back into traffic and rolled over. Two other vehicles were hit by van and two more vehicles were damaged trying to avoid the crash.
"When we arrived here we found ten patients all over the roadway, one (was) trapped in the vehicle," said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue battalion Chief Abel Fernandez.
Zike said thanks to Good Samaritans like Zike, a nurse on her way to work, many of the seriously injured people trapped inside the van were given a fighting chance to live.
"There were some people, when I came up, unconscious," said Zike, "They weren't breathing so I immediately started CPR."
Other drivers who stopped to help said they did what they could to save the people in the van.
"The driver was pinned down with the seat belt and another person on top of him, so we cut that (seatbelt) with a knife and got him and about four others out," said Jorge Rodriguez.
Norman Blackwood said his was one of the vehicles hit by the van. He said at one point the van became airborne and then spun out of control during the accident. While he suffered a cut on his face from the airbag in his truck, he got out and ran to help the other crash victims.
"Once the vehicle came to a stop, everything was fine," said Blackwood, "I didn't feel any blood, I just got out to see what I could do."
"If it wasn't for this gentleman we would have had many, many deaths from the fire in the vehicle," said Fernandez. "This gentleman and the other bystanders were the ones that pulled out most of the people in the van, they're heroes in my book."
One woman was airlifted to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokeswoman Griselle Marino said two people were critically injured in the crash, four others received serious injuries, the rest received minor injuries.
The highway has been closed at LeJeune Road; traffic is backed up to I-95. Click Here for your best alternate routes.
