BUTLER TWP., Montgomery County — A car crashed underneath a guardrail that went through the middle of the roof between the driver and her passenger on Interstate 75, precariously above U.S. 48.
The crash happened around 5:20 p.m. in the eastbound lanes of I-70 after a vehicle in the middle lane attempted to change lanes into the left lane and did not see the Buick already in the left lane, Sgt. Dallas Root of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Dayton Post said.
This led the Buick with two women in their 20s inside to lose control and crash under the guardrail. Both were taken to Miami Valley Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
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“When we first got on scene we were presented with a vehicle teetering off the edge of the highway and underneath the guardrail,” Butler Twp. Fire Capt. Tyler Mangus said. “We had two victims still entrapped in the vehicle. We just went to work to stabilize the vehicle as our primary concern due to hanging over the interstate.”
Mangus and Root said neither had ever responded to a crash quite like this.
“I’ve never seen a vehicle go under the guardrail like this,” Root said. “But I will tell you that the two young ladies that were in the vehicle only suffered minor injury even with the devastation that you can see with that guardrail through the middle of the roof.”
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Luckily, the guardrail split the roof between the driver and passenger, he said, and both women were wearing their seat belts.
“Could have been a completely different story had they not, so it kept them in their seats where they’re supposed to be,” Root said.
Mangus said once they stabilized the Buick, they had to cut it to free the women who were trapped.
“This is very unique,” he said of the crash. “I’d say this is a once-in-a-lifetime call I think in the totality of the situation.”
The other driver was not involved in the crash and was cited for an improper lane change.
