Airmen assist car accident victim

  • Published
  • By Airmen 1st Class Daniel Lile
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Airmen never know when their unique skill sets will be helpful to people in need. Five Honor Guard Airmen were on their way back to Columbus Air Force Base from a funeral Aug. 18 and came upon a wrecked car on Highway 45.

"We saw the accident and realized someone was still in the car," said Senior Airman Ronnie Smith, 14th Operations Support Squadron.

The Airmen included Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Williams, 14th Civil Engineer Squadron; Senior Airmen Patrick Caffrey, 14th Force Support Squadron; Airman 1st Class Dimitri Munoz, 14th Medical Operations Squadron; Airman 1st Class Jasson Adamson, 14th Security Forces Squadron and Smith. The vehicle was badly damaged, hinting to the Airmen that the accident was severe.

"The vehicle was upright but it appeared as if it rolled about three or four times into the median," Adamson said. "The truck was heavily damaged everywhere and there was debris all around." When the Airmen approached the scene of the wreck they realized the man involved in the accident was unconscious, leaning over the steering wheel.

"We smelled gasoline and we noticed something leaking from the front of the vehicle," Smith said. "We heard clicking and then saw a guy knocked out inside the truck. He was over the steering wheel that appeared to be bent in from the impact of his head and his leg was stuck under the steering wheel so he couldn't move. I immediately reached through the window and grabbed the keys out of the ignition so that the clicking stopped and the smoke died down and the gasoline smell went away."

Soon after the Airmen arrived, the man in the vehicle started to slowly regain consciousness.

"Airman Caffrey started talking to the man and was asking him if he could feel and move his fingers and toes, and he said he couldn't feel his legs," Smith said. "Our first concern was to remove him from the vehicle because of the smoke and gasoline, but after that died down we didn't think that it was still the primary concern."

During any kind of incident, self-aid and buddy care training teaches Airmen that they have to be very careful when moving a victim due to possible spinal injuries.

"We did not move him from the car because we feared he could have had injuries to the neck or the spine," Smith said. "We tried to rip the door off to get to him better. There was a lot of loose debris that came out of his truck during the wreck such as a sledgehammer and gas cans that we tried to use to get the door off. The door was lodged in too hard so we could bend the door but not remove it."

The Airmen stayed with the man until emergency services arrived and delivered proper medical treatment.

"When everybody showed up it started to get really crowded," Smith said. "So we helped them in any way we could and then left so we didn't get in the way."

The Airmen went out of their way to ensure that the driver of the car in the incident was taken care of.

"Instead of just driving down the highway, and just ignoring it or passing it by," said Tech. Sgt. Jeri Catus, 14th Honor Guard Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge. "They decided to do something about it. That displays that they had service before self ingrained in them, it is not something you can pay for or get taught it has to be who you are."