Three people were rushed to the hospital after two cars hit head-on yesterday in Warren County, just south of Des Moines. The woman driving the car that veered across the center line was flown to the hospital by air ambulance and is reportedly in critical condition; the two people in the other car were taken by regular ambulance. Brian O’Keefe, a spokesman for the Des Moines Fire Department, says Des Moines fire crews were dispatched to the scene because they specialize in rescuing victims trapped in a vehicle. Crews from Norwalk and North Warren County had stabilized the victims in the cars, but O’Keefe says to minimize the pain and suffering, the Des Moines crew essentially peeled back the roofs of both cars, then used a hydraulic jack to spread the side of the cars open like an accordion to get the victims out. O’Keefe says “we’ve got pretty tough bones in us,” but after an impact like the collision yesterday, there’s severe trauma and rescue workers don’t want to cause additional injuries when getting victims out of a smashed car. O’Keefe says the site of yesterday’s accident is near where a person was killed in an accident just two months ago. O’Keefe says a cross stands about 50 feet from yesterday’s accident site, and local officials say they can’t explain why that area has been the site of a number of crashes over the years.
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