Firefighters lifted the car by hand to free the bicyclist

A bicyclist pinned beneath an overturned vehicle in Columbia was freed Saturday night after firefighters lifted the car off the person by hand. Crews from the Columbia Fire Department were dispatched around 7:36 p.m. to a crash near East Business Loop 70 and Bowling Street, and arrived within six minutes. They found the vehicle resting on its roof with the bicyclist trapped underneath. Rather than wait for heavy equipment, the crew stabilized the car and started medical care on the spot. About 25 minutes after arriving, they lifted the vehicle and pulled the bicyclist out. The six-minute response time is the kind of number fire departments quietly train for and rarely get to brag about. The patient was taken to a local trauma center for further treatment.