Published: June 10, 2009 11:55 am      

Two pull victims from car

When he heard “a boom like a tire let loose,” Dave Feltner stopped working on his truck. Then he saw a car in mid-air.

Feltner and a neighbor, Jay Anderson, a Lebanon firefighter, put out a fire and helped rescue three persons from an early 1990s Chevrolet Lumina that overturned at least once on State Road 39 just south State Road 47 Monday afternoon, June 8.

The driver, Teresa Bray, 40; her 17-year-old daughter, and her 10-month-old grandchild were taken to Witham Memorial Hospital in Lebanon.

Bray suffered cuts and bruises, said Boone County Sheriff Sgt. Brian Stevenson. Her daughter, whose name was not released, and the infant, also unidentified, were not believed to have sustained serious injuries. The child was in a car seat, Stevenson said.

Stevenson said initial investigation indicated Bray, who was south-bound, veered off the west side of the road and hit a culvert. The impact caused the Lumina to roll at least once and possibly twice, Stevenson said.

He and Anderson were trying to open the driver’s side door when “about that time the car lit off,” Feltner said.

They removed the victims through the passenger door and used a CO2 extinguisher to extinguish the fire.

“It was pretty heavy smoke,” Feltner said, but he didn’t open the hood. Currently an EMT working at National Hot Rod Association events, Feltner said he had been a firefighter for 27 years.

“I know better than to raise a hood,” he said.

“I just started checking out the baby and getting the troops on the way,” Feltner said. “Everybody got here pretty quick.”

Everybody included Lebanon and Thorntown fire departments, Boone County EMS and the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.