I spent both Monday and Tuesday evening at home, just doing stuff around the house. Wednesday evening, we had our normal evening youth service and I went home.
Thursday, after work, I went by and mowed one of my customer's lawns, then went home and mowed my front yard. After that, I met with two other REACT board members and a grant writer, at Wendy's, to discuss possible grants for our REACT team. Friday, after work, I went by a mowed another lawn, then went home and mowed my back yard. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the house (since we have family coming over Easter Sunday for dinner).
I could not hardly sleep last night for some reason. I went to bed around 11:45 pm and tossed and turned. I finally got up at 7:15 am and started working on the house again. Karla went to choir rehearsal and I spent the morning running errands. Around noon, I was sitting at the stop light at SW 104th and Western, waiting for it to turn green. All of a sudden, I heard a loud screech and a crash. Two cars collided in the middle of the intersection. I pulled ahead, stopped in the middle of the intersection and activated my emergency lights. The following is the report I filed with my REACT team:
On April 7, 2012 @ 11:45 am, I was sitting at the stop light at SW 104th and Western, northbound. I was the second vehicle in line at the light. All of a sudden, I hear a screech of tires and a loud crash. Two vehicles collided together in the middle of the intersection. I tried to call someone on the REACT radio, but nobody was monitoring. I pulled around the vehicles in front, activated my emergency lights, grabbed my vest, ID and hand-held REACT radio and got out of my truck. Fortunately, several other motorists stopped to help as well. I asked if someone had already called 911 and they said they did. I went to each car to check on injuries. Both drivers were banged up pretty good, but nothing serious. Two other people with me said they had medical experience, so I focused on the very heavy traffic and let them assist the injured. Once I made sure first responders were on the way, I called Mike Weiss on my cell phone, but did not get an answer. So, I called Chris Toner....advised him of my location and what I was doing. I directed traffic, waiting for first responders to get there. Within minutes, a fire engine and rescue ladder arrived on the scene. The horn on one of the cars was stuck, so I assisted the firefighters in getting the hood up and disconnecting the battery. EMSA arrived on the scene and took charge of the injured, while myself and the firefighters continued to direct traffic. EMSA took the injured to the hospital and PD still had not arrived. The traffic flow was doing fine, except for a few idiots. Because of the position of the vehicles, we had to block off several lanes, so I set my four safety cones up to block off some of the lanes. Since many people were gawking at the accident and not paying attention to the signal lights, I had to grab my whistle out of my truck and continuously blow it to keep traffic flowing. During this time, unit 728 (Mike Weiss) went 10-8 on the radio, so I called him and told him where I was at, what I was doing and gave him continuous updates. The police finally arrived, but it was only one officer......actually it was an officer I graduated from high school with, Sgt. Phillip Paz. Since he had to work the accident, myself and the firefighters continued to direct traffic. They were able to move one vehicle, but the other had to be towed. Then, we had to wait for an additional 20 minutes or so for a wrecker. When the wrecked arrived, I blocked all lanes of traffic, so he could get to the wrecked car. While he loaded up the car, I spoke with Sgt. Paz and told him who I was. He was very happy and gracious that I had stopped and assisted with traffic. Even though he knew who I was, I still gave him a REACT business card. As the road became clear, Sgt. Paz helped me gather my safety cones and we all left the scene at 12:40 pm. As I drove off, I tried to contact someone on the REACT radio, but got no response, I called Chris Toner and left him a message on his voice mail and then called Mike Weiss and informed him I had cleared off the accident. Time out was 55 minutes.
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