On the morning of March 3, Jim Yates, West Windsor’s Emergency Services Coordinator, happened to be driving down Princeton-Hightstown Road toward the township building at 10:59 a.m. when a car heading eastbound toward East Windsor swerved right in front of him and skidded off the road into a grove of trees near the Windsor Greens golf course.
Yates immediately pulled over, called for help, and found the driver, Christopher Dittrich, 18, then a senior at High School South, to be seriously injured, and tried to keep him alive until more help arrived.##M:[more]##
What makes Yates’s actions particularly heroic, said Stefanie Maloney, the president of the West Windsor Professional Firefighters Union, which presented Yates with the Life Saving Citation during the council’s August 18 meeting, was that Yates, by himself, focused on performing two tasks at the same time — keeping Dittrich’s airway open, and performing C-Spine stabilization, which holds the neck in place — two very critical tasks that usually require two paramedics.
Dittrich’s car was mangled, and he needed to be extricated, and Yates had to perform the duties by himself until more help arrived. Because of the immediate response of the West Windsor EMS crew, township police and firefighters, and medics from Capital Health System, Dittrich was extricated by 11:16 a.m., the entire time, Yates’ “hands never leaving the important job,” Maloney recalled.
Maloney said Yates would probably tell everyone that Dittrich, who survived the crash, is alive today because of a team effort. But, she said, there comes a time when firefighters need to be recognized when they “truly have done something extraordinary; this is one of those times.”
The Dittrich family, including Christopher, attended the meeting to watch as Yates was honored. “We’re here to honor Jim,” said Brian Dittrich, Christopher’s father. “It’s great to have my son here. It’s great to have Jim here. Jim’s great work truly saved my son’s life.”
As Maloney predicted, Yates acknowledged the efforts of all the rescue crews involved. “It was a team effort; everyone was involved. I just happened to get there first,” he said.
