Medical crews were forced to amputate a truck driver’s leg in order to free him from his rig after a five-truck crash. The accident happened early Thursday morning on an icy Interstate 90 at Fourth of July pass in Kootenai County, Idaho.
According to Idaho State Police, the pileup occurred after traffic came to halt for a jackknifed semi around 5:40 a.m.
A 2000 Freightliner was slowing as it approached the jackknifed truck when it was sideswiped by a 2015 Volvo tractor trailer.
A 2009 Volvo driven by 54-year-old Aleksey A. Tikhonov, then crashed into the rear of the 2015 Volvo and the Freightliner log truck when it was unable to stop.
A fifth truck crashed into the highway median to avoid the pileup.
Tikhonov was trapped inside his rig when several logs became lodged in his cab after impact.
A medical team including two trauma surgeons, an anesthesiologist, and a nurse were called to the scene. They successfully freed the driver by amputating his right leg.
Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services chief Chris Way called the rescue “unprecedented.”
“This had never been done in Kootenai County,” he said. “It may happen five times a year in North America. It’s very rare to take a surgical team to a scene.
Tikhonov was taken to Kootenai Health in serious condition. The other drivers were not seriously injured.