Oceanside CA— Late last night, Sunday, August 30, 2020 just before 11:45pm, Oceanside Fire Department units responded to a traffic collision at the intersection of Hwy 76 and Douglas Drive. The first engine arrived seven minutes after dispatch to find two vehicles with major damage. A small sedan had significant front-end damage and a full-size pick-up truck was on its side.
Each vehicle had a patient trapped and needed to be extricated by fire personnel. In total, there were eight patients, including the two trapped in the vehicles. Oceanside crews extricated the two patients and six ambulances from Oceanside, Vista and Carlsbad transported the victims to Scripps La Jolla, Sharp Memorial, Rady’s Children’s Hospital and Tri-City Medical Center for their injuries. In addition to the ambulances, two air ambulance helicopters landed on scene to transport patients to local trauma centers. In total, 4 adult patients were flown or ground transported to trauma centers (Scripps La Jolla and Sharp Memorial). Two minors were flown and ground transported to Rady’s Children’s Hospital and two adults were ground transported to Tri-City Medical Center.
A ninth patient was discovered after the previous eight patients had been transported. Oceanside Police Department (OPD) units contacted the OFD units on scene to inform them of a patient in the 7-11 parking lot complaining of pain. It was determined that the patient was from the accident and had walked away. That patient was transported to Tri-City Medical Center in the seventh ambulance.
The cause of the accident is under investigation by the Oceanside Police Department. OPD units remained on scene to control traffic and continue the investigation at the time OFD units cleared. SR-76 was reopened just after 3:00am this morning. No further details are available at this time.