MARCH 18, 2015
EAST LAMPETER TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA
A teacher impaled in a car crash that was not discovered for
six hours is recovering.
Megan R. Adams, 28, of Manheim Township, was in critical
condition after the hitch of a boat trailer went through her abdomen in the
wreck overnight March 12.
The English teacher at Elizabethtown Area Middle School was
later upgraded to serious condition and a Lancaster General Hospital
spokeswoman said Wednesday she is now in fair condition.
Unable to help herself after the crash, Adams uttered faint
cries for help. Six cold hours later early Friday morning, someone heard her.
EMTS, firefighters, police and doctors sprang into action
and kept her alive, despite the fact a piece of steel had pierced a 2-by-4-inch
hole through her body.
"It's a miracle she's alive," said East Lampeter
Township police Lt. Robin Weaver.
Adams was driving on an unnamed access road, directly across
Oakview Road from Hobson Road, sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
Her car struck a boat trailer parked in a lot behind Witmer
Brothers Auto Services at 2089 Lincoln Highway East, a few hundred feet from
the state police barracks.
The trailer and the small boat it carried were not hooked to
a vehicle, Weaver said. Adams struck the hitch of the trailer nearly head-on,
pushing the trailer and boat into two other parked vehicles.
The nearest homes are the Black Oak Estates condominiums a
few hundred feet away.
The accident was not discovered until a neighbor heard
Adams’ cries for help between 5:30 and 5:40 a.m. Friday, Weaver said. “They
were very weak, but a person heard them and found her in the car.”
Adams was also suffering from hypothermia. The low overnight
was 31.
The trailer hitch had gone through the engine compartment,
the dash, the right side of the woman's abdomen and out the back of her seat,
according to Lafayette Fire Company Lt. Mike King.
The metal hitch was about 2 inches by 4 inches. Weaver did
not know its length. It was the worst impalement King has seen in his 17 years
with the fire department.
EMS and police were on site when firefighters arrived.
Firefighters put wooden blocks under the car and deflated
its tires to stabilize it, and took all the windows out of the vehicle. They
cut out the doors and roof and removed the steering wheel and the back of the
driver’s seat.
Using a circular saw, firefighters cut the hitch a few
inches in front of the woman and behind her. They sprayed water onto the hitch
to prevent it from heating up when it was cut.
“I was incredibly overwhelmed and thankful she was awake and
conscious and talking to us,” King said.
Lafayette Fire Company Capt. Jeffrey Keens said Adams was
looking right in his eyes and knew everything that was happening.
Keens talked with her throughout the “delicate work” it took
to get her out of the car. “I told her we’re working as quickly as we can to
get you out, but we have to take all the proper precautions to keep you safe.”
“It is something you would see out of the TV show Chicago
Fire,” Keens said.
Firefighters worked an hour to free Adams from the car and
get her safely into an ambulance. They left part of the trailer hitch inside
her for doctors to remove.
About 25 firefighters from Lafayette, Witmer and Ronks fire
companies and several medics and police officers worked well together and the
entire operation went very smoothly, Keens said. But his thoughts are with the
patient.
“I wish her the best,” he said. “Hopefully, she will pull
through. She seemed like she was in pretty good condition when she left.”
Police are investigating to determine what caused the crash.
Speed does not appear to be a factor and no evidence of
braking or evasive maneuver prior to impact was found, Weaver said.
Route 30 traffic was not affected by the crash.
Adams is a middle school language arts teacher, for the
eighth-grade Falcons team at Elizabethtown. District spokesman Troy Portser
said counselors were supporting students and staff Friday.
"It's in moments like this that our teaching staff
shows the utmost in professionalism with the amount of compassion and empathy
that they have showed our student body this entire week," he said.
This was the second accident to touch the district in one
week.
The middle school lost a student to a traffic accident
Monday when David Weiser, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, was struck and killed
while walking home from school.