One of two Preston firefighters injured when he was ejected from a fire truck during a crash this past weekend will undergo surgery Monday.
Chief Engineer Jared Bennett, the son of Fire Chief Brian Bennett, and John Sanchez were headed to a fire Saturday when the crash occurred, according to KY3.
Bennett took evasive action when a car approached heading straight for them. The truck crossed the center line, veered off the road and turned onto its side in a ditch. Bennett was ejected through the windshield.
Chief Bennett told a reporter: “As we proceeded down the highway, a firefighter came on the radio and told me he had traffic in his lane. At that moment, I was coming around the curve when I met another car in my lane. I had moved over when I came around the curve. I’d seen my chief engineer had been ejected from the vehicle, and our engine had rolled over on its side..."
Sanchez was released from the hospital after treatment.
The chief added: “All of his ribs are broken; the sternum is broken. So in the morning, they’re going to go in and put everything back together because all of his ribs are displaced, currently has in the chest tube, just having some breathing difficulties associated with a lot of broken ribs.”
He's hoping Missouri Highway Patrol find the driver of the car.
“You know, there’s a lot of things that we can get by with, had they been texting or lighting a cigarette, on the phone, whatever, if they were to just stop. Instead, they left my son, a firefighter, laying in the middle of the highway, basically, as roadkill,” he said.
In light of the crash, he wants people to slow down and pay attention when they get behind the wheel.
“...Had I not been behind them, I don’t know how long it could have been before anybody got there...And that’s, I think, for me, is what I really want people to understand is what’s at stake for everyone."
