Following a one-car accident on Mt Pleasant Road at about 2:48 am on Wednesday, November 22, Hawleyville volunteer firefighters extricated the two men who were trapped inside the heavily damaged vehicle, which had exited the roadway, gone airborne, and then struck a tree on an embankment before coming to rest against another tree farther down that slope.

Police said motorist James Harrington, 23, of Danbury was driving a 2014 BMW 328-XI sedan westward near 108 Mt Pleasant Road, when while negotiating a curve to the left, the vehicle drove off the right road shoulder and hurtled down the embankment. Jesse Coachman, 22, of Danbury was a passenger in the auto, police said.

Both Harrington and Coachman were wearing seatbelts and the airbags deployed within the BMW, police said.

Hawleyville Fire Chief John Basso said that after leaving the roadway, the auto apparently became airborne and traveled over and above a set of wooden post-and-cable barriers alongside the roadway. The airborne BMW then hit a tree about ten feet above the ground on the embankment before it came to rest against another tree, farther down the bank, he said.

Firefighters needed to lower themselves to the accident scene on ropes due to the slope's 30-degree grade. The vehicle had come to rest about 35 feet below the grade of the roadway, he added.

The map below indicates the general area where the vehicle landed.

To get the two men out of the heavily damaged BMW, firefighters need to cut off its roof and remove the driver's door. The ten firefighters who responded to the call extricated both men from the vehicle in 37 minutes, Chief Basso said. Both men were conscious during the incident.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported both men to Danbury Hospital for treatment of injuries. A hospital spokeswoman said that both men were treated for injuries and released from the hospital.

The auto accident remains under investigation.

[naviga:img class="aligncenter wp-image-293256" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Mt-Pleasant-Road-MVA-Google-Map.jpg" alt="Mt Pleasant Road MVA -- Google Map" width="500" height="411" /]