Accident victim flown to hospital

A man was flown by helicopter to Washington Hospital Center in the District of Columbia after being seriously injured in a three-vehicle accident on Potomac Mills Road on Friday afternoon in Dale City.

According to police, a Yellow Cab taxi was heading toward Gideon Drive on Potomac Mills Road when it collided with a green Saturn where the road merges with the long curving exit ramp from Interstate 95 southbound. A minivan traveling in the opposite direction on Potomac Mills Road was clipped by the Saturn while in the right-turn lane to C.D. Hylton Memorial Chapel. The Saturn landed upside down by the side of the road.

The man driving the Saturn was seriously injured but is expected to live, said Prince William County Police Accident Investigation Officer Steve Fischer. The cab driver suffered an arm injury and was taken by ambulance to Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge; no one in the minivan was injured, Fischer said. Their names were not released.

Sharon Riley and Paul Booth stopped after Rileys son, Joseph Riley, 12, saw the accident at about 5 p.m.

Joseph said the driver of the green Saturn was coming off the exit ramp. He said the driver tried to stop but was unable to do so and collided with the cab.

“The car started sliding and flipped over here,” Joseph said, pointing to the car that was upside down, roof smashed and crumpled, off the road at the side entrance to Hylton Memorial Chapel.

Sharon Riley immediately ran to the Saturn, where she said she found the driver to be conscious but bleeding from the head and vomiting.

“He had a name tag on, so I read it,” Riley said. “When you would call his name he would open his eyes. Im praying that was a good sign. It was a good sign that at least he knew his name.”

He did not speak, she said.

Prince William County Fire and Rescue and Prince William County Police arrived in minutes and called for a helicopter to fly the man to a hospital.

While Riley stayed with the Saturns driver, Booth went to aid the driver of the taxi.

“He was conscious and responsive,” Booth said. “He said his head hurt and his left arm was hurt.”

Two specialty units were sent to extricate the driver of the Saturn, said Prince William County Fire and Rescue Technician II Everett Payne. It took rescue personnel about five minutes to free the driver, Payne said.

Fischer said Friday evening that he had difficulty immediately locating the mans relatives because the information on the mans license was not up to date. When Fischer reached the victims wife, she said the couple had recently moved to the area.