PORTLAND -- Eight Portland firefighters lifted a 3,200-pound car off a fallen bicyclist pinned underneath it early Thursday morning.
Keith Guthrie was safely pulled from the wreckage just before 7 a.m., and then rushed to a local hospital with serious injuries.
The firefighters decided to use sheer muscle to lift the car after an arriving paramedic determined that Guthrie had grave injuries. The firefighters made a quick decision to skip some safety procedures and lifted the Chrysler PT Cruiser off the man, said 16-year veteran firefighter Mick Held.
"We were putting a plan together and realized how many of us were there," Held said. "We had two firefighters with the patient to help pull him out from beneath the car. And then eight of us lifted the car off of him. It wasn’t pretty but it worked."
"When those guys grabbed the car and I heard the word 'go,' the car just seemed to levitate and we were able to free the patient immediately," said paramedic Aaron Fry.
Several witnesses reported seeing Guthrie on a bicycle just before the accident and changing lanes illegally on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Then, they said he was struck by a car and the impact threw him into the path of an oncoming vehicle. He became pinned under that oncoming car at the I-84 overpass, according to Portland Police Bureau spokesman Lt. Robert King.
Friends told KGW that Guthrie suffered a crushed shoulder, spleen and concussion and was not wearing a helmet. They said his car was in the shop and that's why he was riding his bicycle.
"Eighteen firemen lifting a car and off one of my best friends is just crazy and that's awesome," said James Armagost.
Guthrie faces citations for an unlawful lane change and improper use of a lane, King said.
