- Reports from Fox6now.com and WISN.com
Update (2 p.m.): A Wauwatosa woman died after her minivan was struck in a head-on crash Tuesday, police said.
Candace M. Durdin, 69, of Wauwatosa, was pronounced dead at 12:40 a.m. from injuries that she received in the crash, Brookfield police said.
The other driver, a 30-year-old Waukesha man, is still listed in critical condition at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa. His identity was being held pending further investigation, police said.
Update (10:55 a.m.) Extricated from her minivan after a head-on traffic crash, a 69-year-old woman was alert and talking to parademics, hours before she died at a local hospital, a fire official said.
Brookfield Fire Chief Charlie Myers said in an interview that crews from his department used Jaws of Life tools to get the woman out of her Dodge Caravan shortly after the 7 p.m. collision on North Avenue at Hollyhock Lane.
"We’re saddened," Myers said. "We don’t know what the cause of the fataility actually was, whether it was related to the injuries or some other type of thing that happened because at the time that we were with her, she was communicating with the firefighters and paramedics."
Police said a Buick Regal driven by a 30-year-old Waukesha man crossed the center line on two-lane North Avenue just north of Elm Grove and struck the Caravan.
Fire crews extricated the man from the Regal and he was flown by Flight for Life to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa, where he was in critical condition.
After the woman was rescued from her minivan, an Elm Grove ambulance took her to Froedtert and she actually arrived at the hospital before the man on the helicopter because it took longer to get him out of his damaged car, Myers said.
The woman's name and residence was not immediately available Wednesday morning, and Myers said he had no information on why the Waukesha man crossed the center line.
Myers said the last traffic fatality he could remember in the city was a death on I-94 near Elm Grove Road several years ago during the reconstruction of the Interstate. However, he added that his department does not always learn after transporting patients to hospitals whether they survive.
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Update (7:15 a.m.) A 69-year-old woman died in a hospital overnight and a 30-year-old Waukesha man was in critical condition after police say the man crossed the center line on North Avenue and collided head-on into the woman's vehicle Tuesday evening, Fox6now.com reports.
Original story: Both were both taken to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital after the crash, with the man flown by Flight for Life, Brookfield Police Lt. Jeffrey Schramm said.
According to Schramm:
At 7:03 p.m. police and fire personnel responded to a two-vehicle crash on North Avenue, 400 feet east of Hollyhock Lane.
Investigators determined a Buick Regal was traveling west on North Avenue and crossed the center line, colliding head-on with a Dodge Caravan headed east.
A 30-year-old Waukesha man driving the Regal was taken to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital by Flight for Life.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Redonkulous.
So, even if the time difference wasn't much in this particular case, the level of care for a critically ill person is much more sophisticated.
Does the helicopter rescue cost more? Sure. But I've ridden with these people, they are the most awe-inspiring professionals I've ever met (and that's not hyperbole), and if I'm critically injured, they are who I want by my side, whether in the air or on the ground. Also, the whole point about time is misguided and mistaken. If there had been no extraction involved in this case, most likely the man would have been rushed to the hospital in a ground ambulance, because it takes 10 minutes to spin up the helicopter. But since it took time to get the man out of the car – while he was visibly critical inside – they were able to have the chopper there and whisk him to the hospital in much less time than any ground ambulance could have done it. Those are life-saving minutes.
1) Very sad the woman passed away...my condolances to her family... 2) We should never assume that texting or any other distraction was a cause for any accident...the young man driving the other car shouldn't be looked down upon - we have no idea if he had a heart attack, a diabetic issue, a stroke, or if his vehicle had some sort of mechanical failure. We just don't know, and shouldn't draw conclusions that aren't warranted. 3) I would never question a professional's decision on whether a patient should be driven or lifted to the hospital...this is why they are the professionals...and why I'm not. If an emergency professional decides that Flight is warranted, I trust he or she knows what he or she is talking about.