Three vehicles collided in a chain crash in Taichung's Beitun District, overturning a sedan and trapping two people inside, while a motorcyclist was rushed to hospital in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the United Daily News reported.

Firefighters cut open the overturned car's doors with hydraulic tools to free the two. The cause is under investigation.

What 'OHCA' marks

The term Taiwanese media use frequently, OHCA, means out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: the heart has already stopped when the ambulance arrives. Survival depends heavily on whether the collapse was witnessed and whether CPR began immediately.

Motorcyclists are often found in this state after crashes for a simple reason: car occupants have a body shell and airbags to absorb impact, while a rider's body strikes the road directly.

The math in a city full of scooters

Taiwan has among the world's highest rates of motorcycle ownership per capita. They are cheap and convenient, but carry far higher risk of death or serious injury in the same crash. Cities have therefore run separation measures such as scooter lanes and dedicated left-turn waiting boxes.

Taichung recently expanded YouBike to 1,800 stations, adding two-wheeled trips. As modes multiply, designs that let road users protect one another must keep pace.

The condition of the two rescued is unknown. Extracting trapped occupants typically takes around twenty minutes, and shortening that window is the purpose of how rescue equipment is deployed.