LYNN — A serious two-car collision late Friday afternoon on Broad Street left one vehicle flipped over on its roof, sent one car flying to the other end of street before it came to a stop, and sent all three people involved to the hospital.
On a relatively quiet day in the downtown area, the sound of the collision could be heard blocks away from where it occurred, shortly after 4 p.m. Witnesses and people who work in the area described hearing a “loud bang,” which sent them rushing out to find the cause.
At the corner of Broad and Silsbee streets, firefighters and police officers tended to the two occupants of a flipped-over SUV, who were out of the vehicle upon their arrival. At Broad and Exchange streets, the driver of the second vehicle, a young woman, was bleeding heavily from her face. Responders worked to calm her down before helping her out of the car.
District Fire Chief Joseph Zukas said the three occupants from the two vehicles, all women, were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Two were taken to Salem Hospital, and one was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Both cars had significant damage,” said Zukas. “Both cars are thought to be totaled from the damage.”
The woman in the vehicle that went flying down the street to where Broad intersects with Exchange was helped prior to police and firefighter arrival by two IUE-CWA Local 201 employees, Swampscott resident Britani Dunbar, 28, and her workmate Justin Richards, who work as an office administrator and business agent, respectively, at the union hall on Broad Street.
“Justin heard a loud bang, and just ran outside, and said explicitly ‘oh, (expletive), a car just flipped over,'” said Dunbar.
Dunbar said Richards told her to call 911, and then he ran to get paper towels and gloves to help the woman, who was bleeding profusely in the vehicle and appeared to be disoriented.
While Richards is not a first responder, Dunbar said this is not the first time he has intervened to help someone in a crisis. She said Richards has saved someone who was choking in the past.
Dunbar said she tried to keep the woman alert until emergency responders arrived. She tried to tell her jokes, but said that since the woman was dazed, she may not have heard what she was talking about.
She said the woman kept on repeating one thing: her concern for her 1-year-old daughter, despite the fact that her daughter was not with her at the time of the crash.
“The women kept going in and out, in and out, passing out, coming back and just asking for her baby,” Dunbar said.
Dunbar said the woman’s phone was unlocked, so she decided to call the woman’s mother. While she was not sure whether it was legal for her to use someone’s phone without permission, Dunbar said she would have wanted someone to call her own family if something similar happened to her.
“Her mom said she would be right here,” said Dunbar.
Within minutes of Dunbar and a number of other people calling 911 to report the crash, police and firefighters arrived on the scene. Zukas said firefighters and Atlantic Ambulance paramedics had to extricate the woman out of the car, and immediately placed her onto a stretcher so she could be taken to the hospital.
“Luckily the doors were able to be open,” said Dunbar.
On the other end of the street, where Broad intersects with Silsbee, witnesses described another Good Samaritan effort that took place before emergency responders arrived to help the two occupants in the flipped-over SUV.
Witnesses said bystanders had tried to help the two people out of that vehicle before police and firefighters arrived. By the time firefighters arrived, Zukas said both occupants were out of the vehicle, but it was not clear if they got out on their own or received assistance from people in the area.
“Two patients were sitting by each front door of the flipped car when the Fire Department arrived,” said Zukas. “The two victims who were already out of the vehicle were also treated and assessed, and were also put on stretchers to be transported to (the) hospital.”
Elvin Castro, 37, the owner of Zone Barbers, a barbershop located near the crash, described hearing a “loud bang,” which he said sounded as if something had fallen. Castro, who lives in Lynn, said he then saw one of the cars flying down the street.
Castro said he went to use a baseball bat to break the windows of the SUV open, in an attempt to help the people who were hanging upside down, but backed off once the vehicle started smoking from the crash.
Police could not provide details of the crash, as they had not finished the incident report prior to The Item’s deadline.
