DAYTON — We’re learning more about what happened in the moments following a crash that seriously injured a Dayton police recruit Thursday.
News Center’s Mike Campbell spoke with an Air Force medic who rushed to help after the crash.
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 2 Dayton Police recruits still hospitalized, 1 critically hurt, after State Route 4 crash
Sage Knoch had just entered State Route 4 from Valley Street to head home when he and his wife saw the aftermath of the crash on the other side of the freeway. They managed to get turned around and pulled up on the crash within minutes of it happening.
He said he walked to the badly injured recruit, who was face down on the shoulder on SR 4.
“We saw that he wasn’t breathing and he didn’t have a pulse,” Knoch recalled.
>> PHOTOS: Crash scene where police recruit was struck, injured
Knoch and another nurse on the scene carefully turned the cadet onto his back. He held his head steady while the nurse began CPR.
“It took about 30 compressions and then the cadet took a breath of air,” Knoch said.
Knoch said the recruit stopped breathing again shortly after that.
“It took five more seconds,” he recalled. “He came back again.”
Knoch said they continued to work for two more minutes as police arrived at the crash and blocked the road. Two minutes after that, firefighters took over the CPR just as he and the nurse were ready to switch places.
“When he was brought back, he was brought back very quickly. He hadn’t lost color to his face yet,” he said.
>> PHOTOS: Police presence at Miami Valley Hospital after officer-involved crash
The medic told Campbell on News Center 7 at 5 p.m. that paramedics were there two minutes after firefighters took over CPR. From there, the recruit was carefully strapped onto a backboard with a neck collar and rushed to the hospital.
Knoch was glad he and that nurse were on the scene within about 90 seconds after the crash happened.
“In this situation, it just so happens we were able to do basic care, but it was the most important care,” he said.
That recruit sustained critical injuries and remains at Miami Valley Hospital.
>> Local law enforcement agencies show support for DPD after recruits, supervisor injured in crash
Two other recruits and a Dayton police supervisor were inside of the cruiser at the time of the crash. Those three have since been treated and released from the hospital, a Dayton police spokesperson said in a media released issued Friday afternoon.
The two people in the Reichard pickup truck, only identified as an 80-year-old driver and 63-year-old passenger, remain hospitalized in serious condition, the spokesperson said.
News Center 7 also reached out to Reichard Buick GMC for an update on those inside the company truck involved in the crash and we’re waiting for a response.
The crash remains under investigation by Dayton Police’s Traffic Services Unit.