Blackhawk helicopter assists in man's rescue.

Byline: Rebecca Nolan The Register-Guard

It took three hours to extricate an Elmira man from his crashed log truck Thursday, but the 36-mile trip from Lorane to Sacred Heart Medical Center took just seven minutes, thanks to an Oregon National Guard Blackhawk helicopter and its crew.

The UH-60 Blackhawk landed about 1 p.m. on the grass at Alton Baker Park, where a Eugene ambulance waited to whisk truck driver Ryan Pardovich to the hospital.

The 18-year-old man was in good condition at the hospital later Thursday, with a broken left leg and a collection of bumps and bruises.

"He was really lucky," Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Ted Phillips said. "He's doing quite well."

Pardovich lost control of the loaded log truck as he drove south on Territorial Highway near Gowdyville Road about 9:30 a.m.

The 1987 Kenworth truck and trailer left the highway and traveled about 30 yards down an embankment.

It lost its load and rolled onto its top, crushing the cab and pinning Pardovich inside.

Paramedics from South Lane County Fire & Rescue, Eugene, Lorane and Lane County Fire District No. 1 in Veneta stabilized the truck, then worked to free Pardovich from the cab, using the jaws of life, hydraulic rams and air bags.

"It was just a very difficult extrication because of the weight of the truck and its position," Phillips said.

Joe Raade, who leads the paramedic unit for South Lane, said it was the most difficult extrication he's seen.

Pardovich was freed at 12:37 p.m.

"He was talking to us the whole time," Raade said.

Once free, Pardovich was loaded into an ambulance and driven to a farmer's field about a mile away, where the helicopter - whose crew included Oregon National Guard Col. David Greenwood, Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Cooper and Sgt. Justin Thomas - waited to whisk the injured man to Eugene.

The helicopter and crew belong to the 1042nd Medical Evacuation Company, which operates out of the Army Aviation Support Facility in Salem.

The unit has completed dozens of search and rescue missions in Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest. It also has five aircraft and 35 personnel deployed to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, Guard spokeswoman Kay Fristad said.

Normally, emergency workers call on nonmilitary helicopters for medical evacuations, but on Thursday, those were either on other missions or socked in by weather.

If no private aircraft are available, the Guard steps in, Blackhawk pilot Greenwood said.

The transfer in the park was necessary because the Blackhawk weighs 14,750 pounds and the helipad at Sacred Heart can support only 12,000 pounds. (The new hospital at RiverBend will accommodate 22,000 pounds on its helipad, a PeaceHealth spokeswoman said.)

So the crew flew Pardovich and two South Lane paramedics to the park and landed in a cloud of white marking smoke. Eugene paramedics then took him to the hospital.

"It's very common for us to set up an ambulance exchange point," said Greenwood, who grew up in Eugene and Pleasant Hill and graduated from the University of Oregon.

When landing in an urban area, the crew needs a place free of overhead wires, trees and other snags that could bring down a helicopter, he said. They also want fire or police personnel on scene to help with crowd control. The rotors can create winds up to 70 mph, and people standing too close may get hit by flying debris.

While Pardovich was delivered safely to the hospital, Oregon state troopers remained at the crash scene investigating what caused him to lose control. The highway was closed to traffic for at least four hours.

CAPTION(S):

Eugene rescue workers rush to transfer an accident victim from an Oregon National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter to an ambulance after touching down at a Eugene park.