Van collided with a runaway utility trailer

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Mobile Register (AL)

July 14, 1997

Edition: AM
Section: B
Page: 1

Passers-by save driver thrown from wreck Freak accident pitches unconscious man into ditch filled with water
Author: BUSTER KANTROW; Staff Reporter

Article Text:

Two men pulled a motorist to safety Sunday afternoon after he was catapulted face-down into a water-filled ditch when his van collided with a runaway utility trailer on Dauphin Island Parkway.

A third rescuer helped give the driver CPR, and he was breathing when taken away by paramedics, the rescuers said.

Police said the driver and a female passenger were in critical condition Sunday afternoon at the University of South Alabama Medical Center.

Police withheld their identities, saying their relatives had not been contacted.

Witnesses, including the three rescuers, said the injured man's blue van was southbound on Dauphin Island Parkway when it collided with a utility trailer that had come loose from a northbound tow truck. The wreck occurred about a mile north of the Dog River Bridge.

Witnesses said the van did not appear to brake before striking the trailer, which had spun into the southbound lanes.

Rescuers Kevin May and Valentine Redding said they were fishing for bream in a narrow bayou across the Parkway when they heard the chains connecting the tow truck and trailer dragging on the road.

They looked over in time to see the van strike the trailer and fly back-end first into the ditch on the opposite side of the road, they said. ``That's when me and him shot over there,'' May said.

Adolph Herron said he stopped after the collision occurred in front of him as he traveled north on DIP.

Inside the van the three rescuers found a woman, who had been jolted to the van's back doors, Herron said. ``She was bleeding from everywhere,'' Herron said.

The woman was also calling out for someone, Redding said. ``At first we thought she was the only one in the van,'' he said. ``But she kept asking where Jerry was at, so I started looking under the van.''

He didn't find anyone under the van, but he and May spotted an arm protruding from the muddy water nearby.

May and Redding pulled the driver out, then Redding and Herron performed CPR, he said. The driver began breathing after a minute or two, but did not regain consciousness, Redding said. Paramedics took him to the University of South Alabama Medical Center by SouthFlite emergency helicopter.

The van, with a Missouri tag, remained in the ditch as investigators measured and marked the street and ditch 90 minutes after the accident.

The collision tore off the van's left front wheel and bumper, mangled the driver's door and dented the left side.

The man was apparently ejected through the driver's side door, which had flown open, Redding said.

A police spokesman at the scene said no decision had been made about whether charges would be filed.

Police identified the driver of the tow truck as Robert Criddle. Neither he nor his passenger was injured, police said.

Copyright 1997, Mobile Register. All Rights Reserved. Used by NewsBank with Permission.
Record Number: MERLIN_17351