TAMASSEE — TAMASSEE — The three-vehicle accident that sent five people to the hospital Tuesday could have been a lot worse, Pickett Post volunteer firefighter Edwin Bryant said the next day.

Bryant was the driver of a gray Mercury that was hit by an oncoming car on two-lane Highway 11.

“I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt,” Bryant said. “I’m lucky it wasn’t worse. It could have been a lot worse.”

Bryant said he was traveling toward Salem when a white Ford Expedition, traveling toward Walhalla, crossed into his lane and struck his vehicle. The sports utility vehicle hit its headlight with his car’s headlight and sent the two automobiles spinning. In the midst of the twisted metal, Bryant found himself pinned underneath the dashboard, suffering from a broken arm, with no way out of his car.

“I saw it coming, and it was something I couldn’t avoid,” Bryant said. “I didn’t have time to do anything. When you see a car coming at you, you start panicking.”

That’s when his friends at the Pickett Post Fire Department showed up to lend a helping hand. Assistant Chief Jeff Heaton of Pickett Post said they responded to the call only to see one of their friends and colleagues trapped in the mangled remains of his vehicle.

“We got there and found ourselves having to rescue one of our own,” Heaton said. “We had to extract him from the car.”

Bryant said he was grateful not only for his colleagues but for the extraction equipment his department just recently purchased using grant money. He was safely removed from the car. His arm will likely require surgery to repair, he said.

“They all did great,” Bryant said. “Everybody in my department is trained to do that. They just got those tools, and they were put to good use.”

While it was certainly upsetting for Pickett Post volunteers to see one of their own in such a situation, Heaton said rescuers had to stick to standard procedure to help Bryant.

“It was tough to see one of our own at Pickett Post like that,” Heaton said. “But you have to treat it like it’s anyone else. You have to revert back to your training.”

There are unconfirmed reports that two individuals in the accident were sent to Greenville Memorial Hospital and Anderson Area Medical Center, respectively. The South Carolina Highway Patrol officer who policed the crash did not file a report before being off on Wednesday.

A Highway Patrol spokesperson said the condition and identities of all other accident victims are unknown.