West Manatee Fire Rescue

By RICHARD DYMOND - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it MANATEE — Three people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries Tuesday night after the driver of a 1994 Chevrolet van skidded off Cortez Road at 119th Street, tore down a metal guard rail, plunged through woods and ended up suspended in a tree.

There were four people in the van and only one escaped injury when the vehicle veered off the north side of Cortez Road, just east of the village of Cortez, at around 7:45 p.m., said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper David Flores, who is in charge of investigating the cause of the one-vehicle crash.

Identifications were not available at press time.

At least one victim was trapped and had to be cut out of the vehicle, according to the Manatee County Emergency Communications Center.

Long after one victim was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg and two went to Blake Medical Center, a towing crew was still trying to figure out how to get the van out of the trees. Its headlights remained on after the crash.

“The skid marks start right in the middle of the highway and you can follow the path of the vehicle right through the guard rail through the woods and into the trees,” said Kyle Frederick, who was assisting Top Gun Towing in trying to figure out how to extract the van.

There may be charges in the crash depending on what further investigation turns up, Flores said.

Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2010/08/10/2497479/three-injured-in-cortez-vehicle.html#ixzz0wJ2eWwhr