‘A very sad day’: Paramedic killed after car crushed by falling tree, Katoomba
A paramedic is dead and her son has been airlifted to hospital after their car was crushed by a tree in the Blue Mountains.
At about 7pm, emergency services were called to Victoria Street at Katoomba where they found a Volvo sedan with green p-plates underneath a large gum tree.
20-year-old Dylan Fulcher was trapped inside the vehicle alongside his mother Dearne Fulcher, who had died.
It was only when the paramedics arrived that they realised Dearne was one of their colleagues.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Dearne’s family and friends, and all those who encountered her warmth and professionalism. She will be dearly missed. pic.twitter.com/XgmXYdFZTY
— NSW Ambulance (@NSWAmbulance) July 12, 2019
The Ray Hadley Morning Show received information that the 50-year-old was a popular and experienced intensive care paramedic.
Her colleagues, along with Police Rescue and firefighters, worked for more than two hours to free her son.
Dylan was suffering head and chest injuries and airlifted to Westmead Hospital in a serious condition.
NSW Ambulance Deputy Commissioner David Dutton tells Natalie Peters and Edwina Bartholomew “it’s a very sad day for NSW Ambulance”.
“Sadly, the paramedics responding to that scene were to realise that they were, in fact, treating one of their colleagues.
“This was a most challenging job to respond to, but to realise that it was someone you had worked beside and sat beside in an ambulance, and treated other patients with, must have been terribly confronting.”
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Victoria Street was closed for several hours but has since reopened after the tree was chopped up and removed from the road.
Neighbours near the crash scene say the sound of the tree crashing onto the car was like nothing they’ve ever heard, describing it like “a bomb going off”.
7 News reporter Samantha Brett was at the scene and tells Steve Price it was “just an absolute freak accident”.
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Image: Sydney Morning Herald