CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 5 THOMAS GROVE
Headquarters and Support Company, 642nd Aviation Support Battalion
New York Army National Guard
Rochester, New York 

My day began before sunrise in Kentucky. The CH-47 transfer I was on had run a couple days longer than expected. My wife and daughter were home in New York, waiting for my return to start an 11-hour drive to North Carolina. This was going to be a very long day. During a quick refuel stop, I called my wife and told her to meet me at my office and we’d start the drive from there.

We left the hangar about 2 p.m., and with my brain still in hurry mode, I volunteered to drive the first leg. Crossing into Pennsylvania, we pulled off the highway to swap driving duties. I was almost into a dream by the time we got back on the highway. I could just barely make out the chatter of concern coming from my wife and daughter. I sat up, groggy and not in the mood, to see what now demanded my attention.

Slowly my brain strained to make sense of the scene. A smashed SUV on the shoulder of the highway, a flatbed trailer, a truck on its side on the opposite shoulder, tools, wheels, parts, trash and dirt everywhere. First on the scene, there was no question, no choice; we had to render any aid we could.

At this point my brain jumped back into an adrenaline-filled hurry mode. As soon as our car stopped, I jumped out and ran to the SUV, afraid of the inevitable trauma I was about to confront. I was relived, and a little confused, to see the doors were closed and there wasn’t anyone inside. 

Presuming they must have gotten out, I turned my attention to the truck. The roof was smashed to the level of the hood. I was doubtful anyone inside was alive. My wife was already at the truck. She’s a nurse practitioner and had started assessing the driver’s condition through a hole in the windshield. 

“How many are in there?” I asked my wife. 

“I think just one,” she said.

I asked if they were alive and she responded that she thought they might still be breathing. She cut off my barrage of questions and said, “Shut up, call for help and get a bottle of water out of the car.” 

Relived that I wasn’t there alone, and impressed and proud of my wife’s candor, I did exactly what she said. I could hear her talking to the man in the truck.

“Sir, you’ve been in an accident,” she said. “Sir, can you hear me? Sir, we are going to help you.”

At this point I re-walked the scene trying to find the driver of the SUV. I soon realized that, although there were two vehicles, this was actually a single-vehicle accident. The truck had been pulling the SUV on the flatbed trailer. It had been traveling northbound before crashing through the guardrail, flying about 80 feet over the median and landing just in front of our car in the southbound lane. 

As the driver started to regain consciousness, incoherent moaning turned to desperate pleas of, “Get me out,” followed by, “I’m not going to make it. Please kill me, please just kill me.” 

My wife held the driver’s hand and gave him small sips of water through the smashed windshield, reassuring him help was on the way. Although there was a small stream of blood coming from his head and he was pinned in the truck, he was breathing, coherent and stabilized by his position. While the truck was on its side, it was not in danger of tipping, there was no gas leak and the scene was fairly secure.

As traffic started to back up, several other motorists stopped to help. A few guys wanted to push the truck onto its wheels and pull the man out of the cab. This would have been impossible as the entire cab was completely mangled, and trying may have killed him. When the first responders arrived, the roof of the truck had to be cut off to extricate the man. He was strapped to a backboard and loaded into an ambulance. 

Back on the road, still a little shell shocked, we realized the following:

• Always expect the unexpected. You can’t be prepared for a truck, pulling a trailer with a SUV on it, to fly head-on into your lane while you’re dozing or multitasking.
• Know your limitations. If your spouse is better suited to offer medical care, then shut up, call for help and get a bottle of water out of the car.
• Don’t cause more harm than good. If there isn’t a good reason, like a fire or drowning potential, wait for the professionals with the training and tools to extricate someone.
• Make a pass-through. Possibly the best help that day came from someone who walked down the highway directing traffic onto the shoulder, making a clear path for emergency response vehicles.

In the end, my long day had become an hour longer, but luckily we hadn’t been there moments earlier when the accident occurred. Although it may not have been the best day for a delay, I was glad my wife was there for the man in his time of need. 

FYI
If you encounter an emergency requiring assistance, your personal roadside safety should be your first priority. Follow the simple safety recommendations in the USACRC’s Emergency Roadside Assistance brochure. Practicing smart roadside safety techniques can help prevent you from becoming an unfortunate statistic. Download your copy at https://safety.army.mil/Portals/0/Repository/MEDIABROCHURES/180821-Roadside-Assistance.a76f3233-c7d7-419c-a565-409beaf5f9c5.pdf?ver=2018-08-23-102812-950.