PORTLAND,
Ore. --
A woman had to be rescued after she drove her car into a gas
station pump, starting a fire Saturday afternoon in Portland.
A
78-year-old woman drove into the pump at 2:15 p.m. at a Chevron gas
station located at 7200 Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, according
to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.
Fire at Beaverton Chevron
Joshua McCool
An attendant immediately shut off the flow of gas to the pump, TVF&R said.
The woman was trapped in her car until a bystander broke a car window and pulled her to safety, according to TVF&R.
"Had
this individual not broken out the window and pulled the patient out of
the burning car and to safety, I don't believe she would have
survived," said TVF&R Battalion Chief Leonard Damian. "His actions
were nothing short of heroic."
The
woman was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,
TVF&R said. She was released from the hospital Saturday night.
Elderly drivers cause many accidents. We need to force
drivers to take driving refresher courses every 5 years or more often.
Drivers must also be tested for eye-sight, hearing, drugs, etc. Many thousands
of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries would be prevented if we do
so. Please remember that a vehicle is a lethal weapon and only a
regularly-trained, capable and fit person should operate it.