Three injured as accident sends car into side of fire station

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

Three people were injured early today in a two-car accident at Russell Road and Spencer Street that ended when one of the vehicles careened into the side of a Clark County fire station, waking sleeping firefighters.

"We weren't sure what it was at first -- it felt like a clap of thunder," said Engineer/Emergency Medical Technician Brad Reid, who was sleeping in the dormitory with four other firefighters near where a Chrysler struck, but did not breach, the outer cinder-block wall.

"When we went outside and saw what had happened, we got our extraction tools and started to cut the people out of the car. There was a heavy odor of alcohol in the vehicle."

Two women in the mangled Chrysler, which had a disabled parking tag hanging from the rear-view mirror, were taken to area hospitals -- the driver to the University Medical Center trauma unit and the passenger to nearby Desert Springs Hospital -- with what Metro Police described as non-critical injuries.

The man driving the other car, a Honda, was taken to UMC also with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Identities of the victims were not immediately available.

Police credited the use of seat belts and the deployment of airbags in both vehicles for making the 5:20 a.m. accident at 5700 Spencer less serious than it appeared.

Police said the accident occurred when the northbound Chrysler failed to stop at a red light and was struck in the intersection by the westbound Honda. Both cars spun to the northwest corner, where they took out the control box to the traffic light.

For a reason not yet known to police investigators the Chrysler then darted diagonally across the intersection, went up onto the sidewalk, traveled over the lawn and struck the northern wall of the fire station, which is on the southeast corner of Russell and Spencer.

The accident knocked out traffic light service, snarling early morning commuter traffic near McCarran International Airport.

Police say alcohol is believed to have been a contributing factor in the accident but will await toxicology tests before determining that.

For the firefighters of Fire Station No. 19, accidents on their property are nothing new.

Spokesman Bob Leinbach said the building has been hit by a car at least once before and numerous accidents have wound up on the front lawn.

A tree that used to stand on the lawn was hit so many times by cars it was removed from the property, firefighters said.