Medics find motorcycle crash victim after location issues | East Pierce Fire and Rescue

The man was using his cell to contact his wife; after hanging up and calling 911, first responders were able to use GPS to narrow their search.

GPS technology helped East Pierce Fire and Rescue find a man injured in a motorcycle crash earlier this week.

On July 9, East Pierce Fire and Rescue were dispatched to a report of a motorcycle crash near Cascadia Blvd and 198th Ave E at 9:11 p.m.

A male rider was injured and reportedly was unable to walk. He was unable to identify the location of the crash, but was in contact with his wife via cell phone.

East Pierce Units met the wife near the water tower at approximately 142nd Street and 198th Ave. E. The actual location of the accident remained unknown.

Fire units and Pierce County Sheriff Deputies searched the area, driving while sounding sirens so that the patient could direct units based on the sound as he communicated via cell phone. While that narrowed the search area, over a mile to the south of the original location, it did not lead units to the crash site.

The man was directed to disconnect his call to his wife, and call 911 so that dispatchers from South Sound 911 could work to determine the location by obtaining a GPS location of the cell phone being used.

This narrowed the search area again. Ultimately, a Pierce County Sheriff Deputy found the crash site and patient, in the southeast section of the Bonney Lake (Tehaleh) Plateau, several miles from the originally reported location.

With information from the Deputy, East Pierce units reached the patient at 11:16 p.m., after searching for nearly two hours.

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