MERCER TWP — It took 80 minutes, but firefighters finally got a trapped driver out of her badly crumpled sport utility vehicle that wrecked Tuesday morning in northern Butler County.

“She’s a very, very, very lucky young lady,” Doug Dick, paramedic and EMS chief for the Superior Ambulance Service, said of the 21-year-old driver from the Grove City area.

Kayla B. Thompson was on her way to work about 7:15 a.m. when she lost control of her 2015 Nissan Rogue on Browntown Road between Route 8 and Harmony Road in Mercer Township.

The westbound vehicle went off the south side road, hit an embankment and became airborne for about 20 feet before rolling over and hitting a tree with its roof. The SUV landed on its wheels.

“The vehicle was crushed,” said chief Steve Bickel of the Harrisville Volunteer Fire Department.

Thompson, who was wearing a seat belt, was “heavily entrapped,” according to firefighters’ vernacular.

“The car was pretty much wrapped around her,” Dick said. The vehicle’s air bags all deployed.

The severity of the crash sent firefighters from four departments to the scene. Harrisville, Marion Township and Slippery Rock in Butler County and the Pine Township Engine Company in Mercer County supplied the manpower.

The windshield was caved in and the steering wheel was bent into Thompson. The dashboard was all the way down on her hips and legs.

“She was conscious, alert and talking,” Dick said. But she was in a lot of pain.

“Mostly neck and back pain,”Bickel said.

The emergency crews, armed with hydraulic rescue tools, toiled to free her from the wreckage.

“We cut the roof completely off, lifted the dash and popped the doors,” Bickel said.

Looking on anxiously were Thompson’s parents, from Harrisville, who were called about their daughter’s accident — and predicament. Her folks talked to her throughout the ordeal and offered encouragement.

The rescue effort took an hour and 20 minutes and ended when firefighters eased her onto a backboard and hoisted her up where the roof used to be, Bickel said.

Once out, Thompson complained of severe pain to her legs and neck but she had full mobility to all her extremities, authorities said.

Unsure if she had internal injuries, a medical helicopter was called in and landed in a field near the intersection of Browntown and Harmony roads.

Thompson was flown to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh with injuries Dick described as “moderate.” Her condition was not immediately known.

State police are investigating but they do not know what caused the crash. Emergency crews said road conditons, which were dry, did not appear to be a factor.