Guardian Angels At Work:

There is still a little fog in the area, but the freezing rain and drizzle are now East of us. The helicopter is still in the hangar because with the low ceilings in the area I'm goin' nowhere... why even push it out?
Still, we get flight requests. I check our weather and although it looks better, two airports within 50 miles of us are reporting 600 foot ceilings with 1-1/2 miles visibility.
The AWOS at the little airport where we're based is reporting VFR conditions... ceilings of 1100 feet and visibility 8 miles. Conditions are improving, but the forecast is for possible snow showers after midnight. I turn down the flight but tell our dispatchers about the improving weather.

Half an hour later I hear a siren getting louder and louder. I step out our front door just in time to see a Squad Car zoom by going 'way fast. I watch as he disappears in the distance, then hear another siren coming. This time it's a fire truck headed the same direction.
Then, the phone rings...
"Can you take a standby for an MVA between you and C-Ville?"
(Wow! That flight will take all of 5 minutes!)
"Let me check." I look at radar and dial up our AWOS on the phone...
"Yep, we'll accept the standby. We'll push the aircraft out now."

My crew has gone to bed. Over the intercom I inform them we're on standby and need to push the aircraft out of the hangar. All hands need to be watching as we push out to insure I don't run aircraft extremities into walls or doors. We've no sooner finished situating the helicopter on the pad and bringing the tug back into the hangar when the telephone rings again...
"Your flight is a go."

We quickly walk to the aircraft and along with my nurse and paramedic we check to insure shorelines are disconnected, gas cap and all cowlings are secure. I take my seat, buckle up, and pull the starter triggers as my crew climb in and secure seat belt and shoulder harnesses.
"Everyone secure?"
"Ready in the back."
"I'm ready here too."

I announce my takeoff over the airport unicom frequency, then check my instruments to make sure everything is within normal operating limits. We clear the surrounding trees and instantly see the scene... the accident is on the road adjacent to the airport! I call dispatch and tell them we're airborne and already over the scene. Dispatch gives me the frequency and contact information and I switch frequencies while circling the scene. The moment I have the proper frequency dialed in we hear the ground unit calling us...
"Hang on (our callsign), we're putting the strobes out for your landing now."
We see two guys walking out into a harvested field adjacent to an overturned car, carrying three flashing strobe lights.
"Do you see the strobes?"
"Roger"
"There are wires on the East of the road but no wires near your LZ. Your patient is a 25 year old female. She collided with a utility pole and has sustained electrical burns from contacting wires as she exited her car. She also has multi-system trauma."
"Roger that. I'm landing now", and I announce our landing to dispatch.

The area he has designated for me is a safe one... it's in an open, just harvested soybean field. Still wet from recent heavy rains, there is a three foot deep ditch full of water parallel to the road, separating the LZ from our patient's overturned automobile and the ambulance where they are stabilizing her for transfer to us. I don't want my crew to have to negotiate the water-filled ditch with the patient and stretcher, so I land over the strobes his crew has placed, then hover and land the helicopter North of the overturned car, 10 feet from the downed wires about 100 feet from the waiting ambulance.

Skids down, I say "We're on the ground" and note landing time and coordinates, secure the aircraft controls, then dismount to insure any onlookers don't approach too closely. The scene commander approaches to make sure he did nothing wrong selecting the area where he placed the strobes. I tell him his LZ was perfectly safe but explain my thought processes for landing where I did.
"I just wasn't sure you'd want to be that close to those wires" he says.
"I appreciate that sir. Thanks for thinking of our safety" I respond.

When I'm sure I can safely do so I climb into the aircraft and enter the GPS waypoint for the hospital I'm guessing they'll want the patient to be transported to, make note of the distance so I have an idea how long the flight will take, then dial the bug on the heading indicator for the heading I'll need after departing into the wind.

Twelve minutes after touchdown at the scene my crew appears out of all the flashing lights with our young accident victim on the stretcher. We carefully load her, check again to make sure all the aircraft parts are secure, then take off vertically to avoid any unseen wires. The flight to the trauma center takes 27 minutes.
(I guessed wrong and had to reprogram the GPS.)

On this dark, damp, chilly night, she was on her way to visit a family member at our local hospital. She saw "an animal" dart in front of her car and swerved to miss it and lost control. She clipped a utility pole, breaking it in half. In the accident sequence the car rotated 180 degrees and rolled onto its top. Crawling over the headliner and climbing out the rear window, she didn't realize live wires were contacting the car's now exposed (dying cockroach) undercarriage. She was electrocuted as she crawled out. She has an electrical entrance wound on her left index finger and an exit wound on her left ankle, and is VERY lucky to be alive.

Flight visibility wasn't great initially, but improved as the flight progressed.
In many ways, this gal had a guardian angel watching out for her!
These pics are blurry because the photographer is an amateur and it was mighty dark, but you can get a feel for the scene with them.
(Clicken to embiggen):

3 A.M., Sixteen Degrees, Wind Chill -4F.

The phone rings anytime after midnight- you can be pretty sure it's not a personal call.
"Weather check for Limetown, please."
"We can do that."
"Then your scene flight is a go. It's an MVA with extrication still in progress. We'll have more information to relay when you're airborne."

I was napping. I don jacket, stocking cap, and gloves and step outside toward the helicopter. My breath is taken away...
The temperature has dropped and the wind has picked up... 16 degrees F. with 12 knots of wind from the Northwest.

I start both engines, take off, and quickly turn on the bleed-air heater.
"Your coordinates are ********************.
Your patient is a 23 year old male victim of a two-car head-on collision. They are still extricating him. You are the second aircraft to respond to this scene. (Our competitor) has an aircraft on the ground at the scene now. Your point of contact is Unit 7201 on Fire-Mutual Aid."
I punch in the coordinates and announce "Our ETA is 12 minutes."
"Roger that".

I change the frequency on my secondary radio to Fire-Mutual Aid and contact Unit 7201. He gives us LZ information and an update on our now extricated patient. Our patient is the unrestrained driver of one of the cars and somehow found himself trapped halfway outside the car when the machinery came to a stop and the dust settled.
In addition to having two broken legs, he's bruised and contused all over.

With 50 miles visibility, we see the flashing lights at the scene, 20 miles distant . The air-to-air frequency crackles...
"****** 4 this is ######### 8, over." It's our competitor.
I can see his anti-collision light as he lifts from the scene. He fills in details about the LZ and tells us his destination. I appreciate his professionalism.

We circle and recon the accident scene. There are wires to the East and South of our landing area and the wind is strongly out of the Northwest, so I'll have to cross over the wires to land. We're landing in a newly harvested soybean field, but we've had enough rain lately that dust and debris shouldn't be much of a problem. The ground guys have 4 red strobes marking the LZ for us. West of the scene we see 4 flashlights, well dispersed, searching for something. South of the scene we see 3 more searchers, also well dispersed.

"Base, *******4 is landing scene".
"Roger ******4."

After turning on my fixed landing lights and adjusting my two moveable searchlights I say to my crew:
"As usual gang, this will be steep and slow. Shout if you see anything."

Safely on the ground my crew unloads the stretcher and heads to the ambulance. I log my landing time and exact coordinates, then dismount to keep innocents from walking into the tail rotor. The scene commander approaches and shakes my hand. I ask about the searchers....
"One of the victims thinks one of the passengers walked off, dazed and confused."
To myself I wonder if we'll be coming back here later for a hypothermia patient.

From a knoll behind our BK117 I can see the scene-
Two small cars collided head-on, and both cars have extensive left-front damage. The roof of one car has been cut at the "A" pillars and folded back over the trunk and the driver's door is bent open...
Our victim's car?

Ten minutes pass and my crew approaches with the assistance of two ground personnel... a guy at each corner of the stretcher trying to smooth the way across the rutted soybean field. I stand guard to insure no one strays too far toward the rear of the aircraft. Patient loaded, I direct our helpers away from the aircraft, then close the clamshell doors as my crew boards the aircraft. I do a final walk around to insure all doors are secure and nothing is hanging outside the aircraft, board, plug in, buckle up, and bring the engines to operating RPM. Searchlights/landing lights back on, I sweep the moveable searchlight left to right in several sweeps as we takeoff and climb out. I turn the heater on full-blast to help warm our patient. The flight to and landing at the Trauma Center are routine.

Now, please consider-
How do you dress when driving on these Winter days?
I'm not sure what time this accident happened, but the scene was in a very rural area, so from the time of the accident let's assume it took EMS personnel 20 minutes to arrive. After their arrival it took another 20 minutes to free our patient who was trapped by the mangled driver's door.
In shirtsleeves, he was exposed to 16 degree temperatures and 12 knot winds for at least 40 minutes. Had he and other people involved in this accident not been near homes that heard and quickly reported the collision, those times would have been much longer.

The force of any collision could break (all?) windows and will certainly send loose articles in the car flying. So if you are trapped you'd better be wearing warm clothing...
If you're immobilized you won't be able to search for and put them on, post-collision.
When driving, do you dress to prepare to be exposed to such conditions?
You (we) should!