Unsung Heroes

I hadn't planned on a day like this. I had several appointments today, so business was on my mind. Matters of life and death were not on my mind. All of that changed in an instant. My husband and I were coming home from West Memphis, where we taking care of business. At about the 31 mile marker on I-55 North, Gary looked in the rear view mirror and watched a car swerve off the road and into the ditch. It looked like the car had flipped over.

No one else seemed to have seen the accident. They weren't stopping. I called 911 while Gary pulled over and ran down the embankment. One lady had been thrown out the back windshield of the car. She was on the ground, bleeding and moaning. Two other people were still in the car, bloody and dazed. The airbags had deployed, and the front windshield was shattered. The back windshield was completely gone. Parts of the car and debris from inside the car was scattered everywhere.

An 18-wheeler stopped on the shoulder. The truck driver jumped out and ran down the embankment to help Gary, while I stayed on the phone relaying information to the dispatcher. Another car stopped, this time, blessedly, an off-duty paramedic and his wife jumped out and started helping.

When help got there, it got there in spades. We had Mississippi County Sheriff's deputies, state troopers, tow trucks, fire departments with the jaws of life, the helicopter crew, and more firefighters than I could count.

The first officer on scene was a Sheriff's deputy. As he was slowing down to help us, an 18 wheeler in the south bound lane of I-55 rear-ended another vehicle, causing that vehicle to slide off the road and into the ditch on the other side. Now we had two wrecks to deal with. Some of the people that had initially stopped for the first accident ran across the interstate to check on the driver involved in the second accident. His vehicle was totaled, and he had to be cut out of his car. He was a first responder, who was on his way to help out with the first accident.

So many people were there and stopped to help. There were probably six people that stopped and were helping in some way before the professionals ever got there. Once the professionals got there, they did their job with compassion. Those non-professionals stayed on the scene, to fetch or carry or run get this. Some of them directed traffic or carried equipment or helped lift the back boards.

My point is this. People were in need. Strangers that no one knew. But that didn't matter. People stopped and helped, even though those people didn't really know what to do. They just did what they could until the real help could get there. And once the real help got there, they did their job in an excellent manner.

I don't know the names of all the people that stopped. I don't know the names of all the deputies, the troopers, the paramedics, the firemen. But if I did, I would tell them Thank You. I'm glad people like you live and work near me. You know, Around Here. It's a good place to be.