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by RYAN G. MURPHY
A Grymes Hill woman is lucky to be alive after her car overturned in the parking lot of a Tompkinsville fast-food restaurant yesterday, pinning her inside the vehicle.
In fact, she escaped with only cuts and bruises.
Debra Bryce, 47, was heading down a ramp leading into the Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell parking lot at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Van Duzer Street when her 1997 maroon Chevy Lumina ran up a retaining wall on the right side of the ramp and flipped over.
"I blacked out," Ms. Bryce said from the emergency room at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, where she was listed in stable condition. "I turned into the lot and everything went black. I don't remember hitting the wall or flipping over. When I woke up, everything was upside-down."
Ms. Bryce, who works as a housing inspector, was turning into the parking lot around 2 p.m. to get some lunch when the accident occurred. "Getting lunch there is my routine," she said.
Soon after the Chevy Lumina came to rest on its hood, several onlookers crowded around the vehicle as Ms. Bryce shouted for assistance.
"I just screamed for help," she said. "I yelled, 'Help! Somebody get me out!' It felt like the car was crashing in on top of me."
FDNY Engine Co. 155 and Ladder Co. 78 were the first rescue workers on the scene.
"When we pulled up, the car was turned over on its roof and the woman inside was being held upside-down by her seat belt," said a firefighter from Ladder 78, who requested anonymity.
"You always have to be worried when a car overturns like that. Too many times I've seen people incur serious damage to the head and the neck as the result of an overturned vehicle. We see it all the time on the highway. This woman is very lucky."
According to fire officials, Ms. Bryce was conscious and speaking when they arrived. Rescue workers cut off the driver's side and left rear doors to remove her from the vehicle.
Then Emergency Medical Service personnel and firefighters from Engine 155 secured Ms. Bryce's head and neck before she was taken to the hospital.
"I'm being treated for cuts on my hands and my arms," she said. "I'm still waiting to hear from the doctors about all the other tests."
After Ms. Bryce had been taken to the hospital, Rescue Co. 5 righted her vehicle. Using several hooks connected to the underside of the car, firefighters operated a motorized pulley from the back of their truck to turn the vehicle back on its wheels in the rain-soaked parking lot.
"The police said the car was probably totaled," Ms. Bryce said. "But I haven't seen it yet."
"This was a terrible experience."
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