Three Dead Flies

Accident: Jan 28, 2007

Solomon (my son-in-law) and I drove over to eastern WA to buy some Mercedes-Benz parts for my car. We were driving east bound on I-90 just east of Ellensburg when we came upon a wrecked van. It had rolled over just a few seconds before we arrived. It was travelling west bound (on the other side of the freeway, going the other way) when the driver fell asleep and lost control. The vehicle rolled twice and came to rest on the far embankment.
This was the scene as we approached. Lots of looking -- not too much helping.

The van was the pop-top type with the canvas webbing between the van body and the hard lid that pops up. I used my pocket knife and sliced through that canvas. The driver had slipped out of his restraint and was lying on the passenger door and was pinned between the door and the passenger seat. I grabbed him around the torso and lifted him over the passenger seat and pulled him back. I bent his knees and he was out.

Another guy came up and told me he was a paramedic and asked if he could help. I told him to grab the victim's legs. He did. We carried the victim up the ditch to the road and put him on some coats. We covered him with several other coats and the medic started working on the victim's lacerated forehead.

Although the victim was bleeding a lot, he was talking and alert. He didn't have any problem telling us where he had driven that day, where he was now, and if he could move his fingers and toes -- which he could!

Things started exploding in the victim's vehicle so we put him on a ladder and moved him to safety further down the freeway.

Within about 3 minutes of removing the victim, the poor guy's van went up in flames.

By the time Washington State Patrol arrived, there wasn't much left of the victim's vehicle.

I guess it could have turned out worse than it did.

It was a relatively good day, all things considered!