CLEVELAND (WJW) – Video released to the FOX 8 I-Team shows what it took to rescue four people in Cleveland after a car went over a cliff.
911 calls reveal the crash was hard to find and the video revealed emergency crews had a hard time getting to the scene.
It happened in late January off of Fulton Parkway.
Police body camera video and the phone calls have now been released to the I-Team.
The first call to 911 came in with a dispatcher asking the witness, “A car has flipped over?”
He responded with, “All the way. All the way. Flipped to the bank.”
Dispatchers had trouble pinpointing the exact location.
In fact, they also got calls from someone in the car that crashed, but the dispatchers could only hear someone screaming in pain.
You hear a dispatcher saying, “Ma’am, can you hear me?”
Video shows police scrambling to the scene and finding it steep, dark and dangerous. In fact, a car had gone over a cliff, or very steep embankment.
As officers tried to make their way to the car, you can hear them say, “Be careful, it’s slippery.”
One officer had to grab onto a tree to keep from tumbling down the hill.
Another fell down into a large pile of leaves and brush.
When police did get to the car, they had to hold onto it and move slowly to keep from losing their balance.
Officers found four victims — two females and two males.
Police can be heard saying to each other, “Anybody in the back? Can you unlock the car?”
Referring to one victim, they said, “Don’t move. Don’t move. She’s trapped. She’s upside down.”
Soon, police officers and firefighters started carrying out a rescue inch-by-inch. Firefighters sent down ropes and baskets to pull the victims up the hill.
With teamwork and determination, rescuers pulled four people up to Cleveland EMS crews. Medics took the victims to the hospital.
You might be wondering the same thing police wondered. How did a driver end up down there?
A report shows investigators talked to witnesses, looked at skid marks and talked to the driver. The report calls the driver a “suspect,” saying he admitted he’d been drinking before the crash.
No charges have been filed yet by investigators, but the video shows a scene hard to explain, hard to get to and almost hard to believe.
